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Located an exoplanet with conditions to house life

A exoplanet twice as large as Earth has been located by astronomers at the English University of Cambridge, who believe it could have the ideal conditions for harbor life, According to his study released Thursday.

The exoplanet, called K2-18b, is larger than Earth, smaller than Neptune and is about 124 light years, experts say in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.

The astronomers used the mass, radius and data of the K2-18b atmosphere and determined that it is possible that the planet has liquid water under its hydrogen-rich atmosphere.

The K2-18b has a radius that is 2.6 times greater than that of the Earth and its mass is 8.6 times larger than our planet, while it orbits around its star at an ideal distance to house life because it allows the existence of water in liquid form.

“Water vapor has been detected in the atmospheres of a number of exoplanets but, even if they were in a habitable zone, it would not necessarily mean that there are habitable conditions on the surface,” said Nikku Madhusudhan of the Institute of Astronomy at the University of Cambridge , who led the study.

“To establish the possibility that it is habitable, it is important to understand the interior and atmospheric conditions of the plant, (but) in particular, if liquid water can exist under its atmosphere,” he added.

For their research, astronomers took into account observations of the atmosphere, as well as mass and radius in order to determine the composition, structure of the atmosphere and the interior through statistical models and methods.

Thus, the researchers concluded that the atmosphere is rich in hydrogen with a significant amount of water vapor and also that the levels of other chemicals such as methane and ammonia are lower than expected for such an atmosphere.

We wanted to know the thickness of hydrogen‘said Matthew Nixon, another expert who worked on this investigation.

Astronomers estimate that planets such as the K2-18b can be studied more easily with current and future observation facilities to be built, such as the James Webb space telescope, which is scheduled for March 2021.

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