The 34-year-old Hubble Space Telescope continues to provide benefits to scientists, most recently by detecting water molecules in the atmosphere of an exoplanet 97 light years away from Earth. Researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Germany made this finding in the atmosphere of the planet GJ 97d, located 9872 light-years away in the constellation Pisces. Researchers say the planet may be an example of water-rich worlds elsewhere in the galaxy.
OBSERVED 11 TIMES DURING THREE YEARS
Hubble observed the planet 11 times over three years as it passed in front of its star. While water molecules are common throughout the Universe, this finding is considered an important step towards determining the prevalence and diversity of atmospheres on rocky planets.
“This will be the first time we can directly demonstrate through atmospheric detection that these planets with water-rich atmospheres can exist around other stars,” said Björn Benneke of the Trottier Institute for Exoplanet Research at the University of Montréal in Canada, who was involved in the discovery.
The full findings were published last week in The Astrophysical Journal Letters. “Observing water is a gateway to finding other things,” NASA astrophysicist Thomas Greene said about the water findings. “This Hubble discovery opens the door to future study of such planets by the James Webb Space Telescope. (This telescope) can see much more with additional infrared observations, including carbon-containing molecules such as carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide and methane. "Once we have a total inventory of a planet's elements, we can compare them to the star it orbits and understand how it was formed."
Since Hubble's launch, its findings have resulted in more than 15.000 research papers. NASA and the European Space Agency developed the telescope, and NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center continues to manage it. Although competition for usage time is intense, the platform is available to all organizations.
“HALF OF THE PLANET MAY BE WATER AND HALF OF THE PLANET MAY BE ROCK”
Researchers still have questions about the water molecules in GJ 9872d, which they say is as hot as Venus. They say the planet may still have a hydrogen-rich envelope covered in water, making it a mini Neptune. Alternatively, it may be a hotter version of Jupiter's moon Europa, which has twice as much water under its crust as Earth. “The planet may be half water and half rock. And a smaller rocky body might have a lot of water vapor on it,” Bennecke says.
But they say the findings open the door to studying the planet in more detail, including with the James Webb Telescope, which is now looking in detail for water signatures and other molecules.
