Researchers have detected water vapor in the air of K2-18b, a conceivably habitable alien world about double the size of Earth. The findings, announcement made today (Sept. 11), follows released different study published yesterday declaring the revelation of water vapor, and likely clouds and even rain, on the planet.
The far away planet (it’s around 110 light-years away) was found in 2015 by NASA’s Kepler space telescope. The alien world is around two times the size of Earth and eight times the mass. K2-18b circles a red small star in the “habitable zone” — the distances where liquid water could be stable on a surface of the planet.
Researchers from the study today published in the the journal Nature Astronomy utilized information from Hubble Space Telescope in 2016 and 2017. That info was gathered by the group behind yesterday’s study. This allowed the determination that the world has water vapor in its environment. K2-18b is so far the littlest exoplanet that water vapor has been found on.
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