Astronomers have found a super-Earth turned into a water world: what’s going on there?

A new study suggests an unusual transformation process is taking place on the planet.

Scientists have discovered a new planet called HD-207496b, located 138 light-years from us. A detailed study of the exoplanet showed that it either had a gas atmosphere or was completely covered by the ocean. Or maybe there are both. ScienceAlert believes that at this time, scientists believe that the planet could go through a transformation process and become an aquatic world entirely, which in turn could become an aquatic super-Earth.

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To date, astronomers have confirmed the existence of 5300 exoplanets outside the solar system, but about 2 times more planets still await confirmation.

The new planet discovered by the TESS space telescope is an exoplanet named HD-207496b. It orbits the star HD-207496, an orange dwarf similar to the Sun, 138 light-years away. This is a young star that is 520 million years old. The mass of the exoplanet is 6 times the mass of the Earth and 2.25 times the size of our planet. Scientists call such rocky worlds super-Earths.

As a result of extensive analysis, such data was obtained by a group of scientists from the University of Porto, Portugal.

Scientists now know, for some reason, that very few planets have ever been discovered in space orbiting very close to their star, whose masses are 1.5 to 2 times the mass of the Earth. In fact, the new planet belongs exactly in this category.

According to scientists, calculating its density is quite easy if you know the mass and diameter of the planet. And if you know the density of the planet, you can also find out what it is made of. Its density is about 3.27 grams per cubic centimeter, as the study of planet HD-207496b has shown. For comparison, Earth has a density of 5.51 grams per cubic centimeter.

Therefore, the scientists concluded that the new planet was most likely not a completely rocky world, in fact. Scientists suggest it may have a water-rich crust or a gas-rich crust, or a mix of both.

Given that the planet is very close to its star, if it has an envelope of gas, then it will soon disappear. Or maybe it has long since disappeared and the exoplanet is a real water world. The researchers suggest that the planet is perhaps going through a transformation process right now, and perhaps will turn into a water-covered super-Earth in the future. But it is not certain that this will happen. Scientists have embarked on new research to better understand the composition of the discovered planet and what planetary change will ultimately lead to.

As already written FocusScientists have discovered potentially habitable planets near Earth. Astronomers have discovered that at least two planets near the star TOI-700 could potentially support life. Although the third also has similar characteristics.

Moreover Focus He wrote that a wandering planet could disrupt the structure of the solar system and this would cause the Earth to turn into a lifeless world.

Source: Focus

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