Astronomers still scratching their heads over population of ocean-world exoplanets

In a current research submitted to the Astrophysical Journal Letters, a global workforce of researchers led by the College of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) look at the potential for water-worlds round M-dwarf stars. Water-worlds, also referred to as ocean worlds, are planets that possess our bodies of liquid water both immediately on its floor, corresponding to Earth, or someplace beneath it, corresponding to Jupiter’s moon, Europa and Saturn’s moon, Enceladus.

For the research, the researchers centered on super-Earths and sub-Neptunes with hydrogen (H)/helium (He) atmospheres for close-in exoplanets orbiting M-dwarf stars in an try and calculate their total water mass. So, what had been probably the most important outcomes pertaining to water-worlds round M-dwarf stars?

“These planets containing a big fraction of their total mass (10%–50%) in water could be extraordinarily uncommon or nonexistent,” Dr. James Owen, who’s a Senior Lecturer in Exoplanet Physics at Imperial School London and a co-author on the research, not too long ago informed Universe Right this moment. “This is able to suggest planet formation is pretty uniform throughout a variety of stellar lots, producing the identical kind of planets: terrestrial worlds that acquired a number of p.c by mass of hydrogen gasoline from the accretion disk across the younger star.”

Finally, the researchers concluded that whereas the existence of water-world populations “stays elusive,” they did supply potential avenues for garnering extra conclusive outcomes pertaining to water-world populations. These embrace looking for the presence of hydrogen and helium round low-mass exoplanets and measuring an exoplanet’s age to higher decide their long-term evolution. So, what future research are within the works for garnering extra conclusive outcomes?

“This may come from JWST [James Webb Space Telescope] observations of sub-Neptunes—if the outcomes are per giant mass fractions of water of their ambiance (i.e., steam atmospheres) then it means that the planets are certainly water-worlds,” Dr. James Rogers, who’s a Postdoctoral Scholar at UCLA and lead creator of the research, not too long ago informed Universe Right this moment. “Nevertheless, if the atmospheres are per being dominated by H/He, then it means that they aren’t water-worlds.”