A team of astronomers has taken a step forward in our search for planets containing liquid water outside the Solar System . The exoplanet LHS 1140 b It appears to be a world completely covered in ice and may harbor an atmosphere and even a liquid ocean.
First discovered in 2017, the LHS 1140 b It is in the habitable zone of its star and until now it seemed to be an essentially gaseous planet, but data from the James Webb Space Telescope collected in December 2023, compared with previous data from other space telescopes such as Spitzer, Hubble and TESS, changed this perspective.
Scientists led by the University of Montreal believe this exoplanet could be a world completely covered in ice, with the possibility of even containing a liquid ocean beneath a cloudy atmosphere.
These clues make the LHS 1140 b one of the most promising planets as a potential habitable world. The study has been approved for publication in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.
Habitable zone
O LHS 1140 b orbits a low-mass red dwarf star, approximately one-fifth the size of the Sun, and is located about 48 light-years from Earth in the constellation Cetus.
A video released by the European Southern Observatory (ESO) in 2017, after the discovery of the exoplanet, shows an artistic simulation of an imaginary journey from Earth to the LHS 1140 b . Check out:
Its discovery had already caught the attention of astronomers because it is one of the closest exoplanets (planets outside our Solar System) to Earth that is within the habitable zone of its star. In other words, it is at a distance that allows the temperature for the existence of water in liquid form.
O LHS 1140 b It is 1.7 times the size of Earth and 5.6 times its mass. The new data suggest that the exoplanet could be considered a super-Earth (a rocky planet with a greater mass than Earth), rather than a mini-Neptune (a gaseous planet with a thick, hydrogen-rich atmosphere slightly smaller than Neptune), as it initially appeared to be.
Possibility of water
Although scientists have not yet been able to confirm these suspicions, the presence of a nitrogen-rich atmosphere suggests that the LHS 1140 b would have the necessary conditions for the existence of liquid water.
According to the models, if this were indeed the case, the planet would resemble an eyeball — a snowball with an ocean on one side in the shape of an “iris.” The temperature in this ocean could reach a comfortable 20°C.
However, astronomers still have several years to go before they can prove their hypotheses.
“The current suggestion of a nitrogen-rich atmosphere begs for confirmation with more data. We need at least another year of observations to confirm that the LHS 1140 b has an atmosphere, and probably two or three more to detect carbon dioxide,” explained René Doyon, a professor at the University of Montreal who oversaw the study.
“Detecting an Earth-like atmosphere on a temperate planet is pushing Webb’s capabilities to the limit. It is feasible, we just need a lot of observing time,” he added.
Source: CNN Brasil
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