Life away from Earth Possible on New Type of Planets

In their search for potentially habitable planets outside our solar system, astronomers looked for exoplanets similar to Terra. Scientists now have a new class of habitable exoplanets to look for: the Hycean planets.

The name describes hot ocean-covered planets that have a hydrogen-rich atmosphere - and are much easier to find and observe than would-be twins from our own Earth. Learning more about the Hycean planets could help scientists find biosignatures, or signs of life, outside our solar system in the near future. The study was published on Wednesday (25) in "The Astrophysical Journal".

 "The Hycean planets open up a whole new path in our search for life elsewhere," the study's lead author, Nikku Madhusudhan, an expert in astrophysics and exoplanetary science at the Institute of Astronomy at Cambridge University, said in a statement.

There are more than 4,000 known exoplanets outside our solar system. They are considered potentially habitable when they are located in the habitable zone around orbiting stars. In this zone, the planet is the right distance from the star so that liquid water has a stable presence - and possibly supports life as we know it.

Some of the Hycean planets are bigger and hotter than our planet. But researchers believe these planets have large oceans that could support the kind of life that began on the early Earth and can still be found in extreme ocean environments.

One of the most attractive features of these planets is the fact that they have a larger habitable zone than Earth or Earth-like planets - so they could still support life, although they exist outside the zone where our planet must be in order to maintain life. habitability.

Of the thousands of exoplanets discovered in the last 30 years,...