How exoplanet hunters find alien worlds hundreds of light-years away and figure out if they have water
Piaulet and her team conducted a follow-up study of Kepler-138 d's atmosphere.
But the new observations suggested the presence of another world orbiting the host star every 38 days: Kepler-138 e. Taking into account the newly found exoplanet, researchers compared the sizes and masses of the planets in the star system and determined Kepler-138 c and Kepler-138 d were roughly the same mass and size — about 20% larger than Earth.
The team also concluded that up to half of their volumes are likely made of materials lighter than rock."We were surprised that they were not consistent with being rocky in composition," Piaulet said."They had to have some lighter elements in there. Water is a good explanation because it's the most abundant of these elements."
"We often think of the Earth as the blue planet, covered in oceans," she added."These worlds would have much more water than Earth.". For Kepler-138 c and Kepler-138 d, the water atmosphere would be 1,243 miles deep, Piaulet added.Worlds rich in liquid water might not be as rare as astronomers previously thought, Piaulet said.
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