Hot rocky exoplanets may be able to retain a thick layer of water, according to scientists, who say the discovery should help them find an arable world.
Researchers at the University of Chicago and Stanford University created computer models to study ways in which a hot, rocky world could hold on to their emotions for a long time.
Thousands of exoplanets have been discovered, including a growing number of Earth’s orbits, which have a molten hot surface and were once covered with a hydrogen cloak, making them appear slightly smaller than Neptune.
These ‘sub-Neptune’ worlds seem to have lost their senses within a few hundred million years since they were created as a result of radiation from the star – leaving molten rock beneath.
However, this new study suggests that, rather than being bare, many hot rocky worlds may have a water-filled atmosphere ‘for a long time’.
Magma oceans absorb hydrogen from the early atmosphere, reacting together to form water, which then escapes to form a water valve atmosphere, they predict.
Studies suggest that exoplanets near their stars may retain a thick, water-filled feeling. Above is an artist’s impression of the exoplanet WASP-121b, which appears to contain water in the atmosphere
It is an atmosphere that makes life on the Earth ‘s surface possible, regulates our climate and shelters us from the damage of cosmic rays, so if you find one on an exoplanet you may e reduce a world capable of sustaining life as we know it, authors have explained.
Study author Edwin Kite, an expert on how planetary atmospheres grow over time. said many planets start with a ‘cloak of hydrogen’ which they lose over time.
One example of this could be the planet WASP-121b which is 850 light years from Earth.
As telescopes record more and more exoplanets, scientists are trying to figure out what they would look like.
Telescopes can usually tell you about the physical size of an exoplanet, how close it is to its star and if you’re lucky, what its mass is.
To go much further, scientists need to eliminate it based on what we know about the Earth and the other planets in our own solar system. But the most abundant planets do not seem to resemble the ones we see around us.
‘What we already knew from the Kepler mission is that planets slightly smaller than Neptune are very abundant, which was surprising because there are none in our solar system,’ Kite said.
‘We don’t know for sure where they are made of, but there is strong evidence that they are magma balls coated in a hydrogen atmosphere.’
There are also a healthy number of similar smaller rocky planets, but without the hydrogen cloaks.
So scientists thought that many planets seem to start out as those giant planets that have atmospheres made of hydrogen, but lose their atmosphere when the star is lost. nearby lights up and blows the hydrogen.
But a lot of detail remains to be filled in in these models, which is where Kite and colleagues will enter the picture with their new model.
Common buzzard and co – author Laura Schaefer of Stanford University began studying some of the possible effects of a planet being covered in oceans of molten rock.
‘Molten magma is very funny,’ Kite said, adding that ‘also turns strong, just as oceans on Earth do.
Kepler is a telescope that has a highly sensitive instrument called a photometer that detects the smallest changes in light emitted from stars.
There is a good chance that these magma oceans suck hydrogen out of the atmosphere and react to form water. Some of that water escapes into the atmosphere, but much more goes up to the magma. ‘
Then, after the nearby star removes the hydrogen atmosphere, the water is drawn out into the atmosphere instead in the form of water valves.
Finally, the planet is left with a feeling of fullness of water, a stage of planetary evolution that could continue on some planets for billions of years, Kite said.
There are several ways to prove this idea including the James Webb Space Telescope, which came after the powerful Hubble Telescope.
This orbiting observatory is scheduled to launch later this year; it will be able to measure the position of the exoplanet atmosphere. If it finds planets with water in their atmospheres, that would be one sign.
Another way to test is to look for indirect signs of atmosphere. Most of these planets are quickly locked; unlike Earth, they do not spin as they move around their sun, so one side is always hot and the other cold.
Scientists Laura Kreidberg and Daniel Koll pointed out that atmosphere would measure temperature for the planet, so there would be little difference between the sides of the day and the sides of the night.
If a telescope can measure how strong the side of the day is shining, it should be able to tell if an atmosphere is redistributing heat.
The findings were published in the journal Astrophysical Journal Letters.
Scientists study the atmosphere of distant exoplanets using giant space satellites like Hubble
Distant stars and their orbiting planets are often in conditions unlike anything we see in our atmosphere.
To understand these new worlds, and what they have made, scientists need to be able to discover what is in their atmosphere.
They often do this using a telescope similar to the Nasa Hubble Telescope.
These giant satellites scan the skies and lock on exoplanets that Nasa thinks would be interesting.
Here, the on-board sensors perform various monitoring methods.
Absence spectroscopy is one of the most important and useful.
This type of analysis measures the amount of light coming out of a planet’s atmosphere.
Each gas emits a slightly different wavelength of light, and when this happens a black line appears on an entire spectrum.
These lines correspond to a specific molecule, which indicates its presence on the planet.
They are often called the Fraunhofer series after the German astronomer and physicist first discovered them in 1814.
By combining the different light waves, scientists can determine all the chemicals that make up a planet’s atmosphere.
The key is what is needed, handing out the ads to find out what is present.
It is extremely important that this be done with space telescopes, as the Earth ‘s sensation would then penetrate.
Suction from chemicals in our atmosphere would seep out of the sample, which is why it is important to study the light before it has reached Earth.
This is often used to look for helium, sodium and even oxygen in an alien atmosphere.
This diagram shows the passage of light from a star and through an exoplanet atmosphere by Fraunhofer lines showing the presence of major compounds such as sodium or helium.