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Exoplanets – the search for life in the universe

Is anyone still out there? The question of life on other planets, astronomers have no rest. On the exoplanets K2-18b could be the now been able to find. But what does that mean exactly?

What an Exoplanet is?

Exoplanets, extra solar planets, are planets that are outside (Greek: exo) of the Gravitational influence of our sun. An Exoplanet orbiting another star in the case of K2-18b is a so-called Red dwarf.

But Exoplanet is not the same Exoplanet. K2-18b, 2015 by the space telescope Kepler discovered, is also referred to as a super earth. So are the only planets, which range in size and mass between earth and Neptune.

K2-18 is twice as large as the earth and has eight times the mass. The title “super earth” is so absolutely deserves. But whether it can, therefore, also super-life…? May not.

Water should be on a super-earth is in fact also as a matter of urgency. The is to life is essential.

And exactly this has been demonstrated by researchers at the University College in London, on K2-18b now – or, rather, water vapor in the atmosphere of the exoplanet. There is hope so.

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The Planet Hunter

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The Planet Hunter

How do you study a distant celestial body?

But as the existence of water in the case of a celestial body to prove, which is located 110 light-years from earth? “It’s hard, but doable,” says Ingo Waldmann, a Co-author of the British study. “Then, if the Planet between its star and our earth flies through it, and the light of the star through the atmosphere of the planet seems to be.” Just then the Hubble space telescope can collect the exoplanets detected, and information.

With the Hubble data, the researchers came to the water vapour on the track, explains Waldmann. The star’s light reacts with the chemical composition of the atmosphere of the planet.”But if you look at the wave lengths of light, water has a very characteristic fingerprint.” The existence of water on K2-18b is secured.

Not only Hubble and Kepler, the space telescope, TESS is searching for exoplanets

It remains unclear, however, how wet it is on the exoplanets. Because of the amount of water vapor in the atmosphere, Hubble gives no information. “This can be between 0.01 percent and 50 percent,” says Waldmann. The surface of the planet could be either bone dry or of huge oceans covered.

But this is a secret that will elicit the astronomers K2-18b at some point. “With the help of future telescopes, the James Webb space telescope, for example, we can also say the more accurate”, Waldmann is safe.

A visit to K2-18b worth it?

Tend not. “With current technology the trip would take about two million years,” says Waldmann. However, even if the technology could speed up the Trip at some point, snug it is on the exoplanets probably. There is a lack of good air. “Until now, we have found in the atmosphere, only hydrogen and water,” says Waldmann. Of oxygen so far, no trace.

Furthermore, Waldmann is to consider turns K2-18b his rounds in a relatively short distance to its star. The UV-radiation is likely to be extremely high. “Most likely, we would immediately get cancer.” Although for the people inappropriate, it is of course possible that it forms of other life on K2-18b fine.

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New heaven eyes: The Large-Sized Telescope on La Palma

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New heaven eyes: The Large-Sized Telescope on La Palma

Where do you travel then?

Even if K2 is 18b, in this Moment, something very Special, the Exoplanet was probably just one of many. “Super-earths are the most common planets in our galaxy, the milky way, and Red dwarfs are the most common stars. So we will find systems like the K2-18b, in the future more often”, says Waldmann.

Researchers such as Ingo Waldmann hope to discover many more planets with water and thus one of the foundations for life. Not only because it is the “Is anyone there?”-The question haunts. Scientists hope to be able to use the exoplanets, the development of life on earth understand. K2-18b is only the beginning.

 


                                                                                                                                                                         

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