In a recent study submitted to The Astrophysical Journal Letters, an international group of scientists led by the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) analyze the potential for water-worlds around M-dwarf stars. Water-worlds, likewise referred to as ocean worlds, are worlds that have bodies of liquid water either directly on its surface, such as Earth, or someplace underneath it, such as Jupiters moon, Europa and Saturns moon, Enceladus.
For the study, the scientists focused on sub-neptunes and super-earths with hydrogen (H)/ helium (He) atmospheres for close-in exoplanets orbiting M-dwarf stars in an effort to determine their overall water mass. So, what were the most considerable results pertaining to water-worlds around M-dwarf stars?
” Those planets including a substantial fraction of their overall mass (10-50%) in water may be nonexistent or incredibly unusual,” Dr. James Owen, who is a Senior Lecturer in Exoplanet Physics at Imperial College London and a co-author on the research study, recently told Universe Today. “This would imply world development is relatively uniform across a broad variety of excellent masses, producing the same kind of worlds: terrestrial worlds that acquired a couple of percent by mass of hydrogen gas from the accretion disc around the young star.”
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Ultimately, the scientists concluded that while the presence of water-world populations “stays evasive”, they did use possible avenues for garnering more definitive outcomes pertaining to water-world populations. What future research studies are in the works for gathering more conclusive results?
“However, if the environments are consistent with being dominated by H/He, then it recommends that they are not water-worlds.”
Ultimately, the researchers concluded that while the presence of water-world populations “remains evasive”, they did offer possible avenues for garnering more conclusive results pertaining to water-world populations. These include looking for the presence of hydrogen and helium around low-mass exoplanets and determining an exoplanets age to much better identify their long-term evolution. What future studies are in the works for garnering more definitive results?
” This will originate from JWST [James Webb Space Telescope] observations of sub-Neptunes– if the outcomes follow big mass fractions of water in their environment (i.e. steam atmospheres) then it recommends that the planets are indeed water-worlds,” Dr. James Rogers, who is a Postdoctoral Scholar at UCLA and lead author of the research study, recently informed Universe Today. “However, if the atmospheres are consistent with being controlled by H/He, then it recommends that they are not water-worlds.”
What will we continue to discover the potential for water-worlds in our universe, and will JWST assistance bring more definitive outcomes to this study? Just time will tell, and this is why we science!
As always, keep doing science & & keep searching for!
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