Astronomers have made an unprecedented discovery in the search for water in space.

(CNN) — Astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope detected water molecules in the atmosphere of a small exoplanet 97 light-years away from Earth.

The planet, named GJ 9827d, is about twice the diameter of Earth and is the smallest exoplanet known to have water vapor in its atmosphere, according to a new study.

Water is essential for life as we know it, but it is unlikely to support any life on the planet due to the extreme temperatures that turn the water-rich atmosphere into scorching steam.

Astronomers have yet to discover the true nature of this unusual world’s atmosphere, but this revelation paves the way for new research as they seek to understand the origins of planets beyond our solar system.

These findings have been revealed in a report published this Thursday in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.

“Water on such a small planet is a historic discovery,” study co-author Laura Kreidberg, head of the department of exoplanet atmospheric physics at the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Heidelberg, Germany, said in a statement. “It really comes closer than ever before to depicting an Earth-like world.”

However, the planet’s temperature reaches 800 °F (427 °C), making it a steamy, inhospitable world, about as hot as the planet Venus.

“This will be the first time we have directly demonstrated through atmospheric detection that these planets with water-rich atmospheres are actually orbiting around other stars,” said study co-author Björn Beneke, professor at the Trottier Institute for Exoplanet Research at the university. may exist.” Of New York. The University of Montreal said in a statement. “This is an important step in determining the extent and diversity of atmospheres on rocky planets.”

Currently, the research team cannot say whether Hubble detected traces of water vapor within a swollen, hydrogen-rich atmosphere or whether the planet has a water-rich atmosphere because the host star has captured GJ 9827 d’s native hydrogen. -Helium has evaporated into the atmosphere.

“Our observing program, led by principal investigator Ian Crossfield of the University of Kansas (Lawrence, Kansas), was specifically designed with the goal of detecting not only molecules in the planet’s atmosphere, but also water vapor.”, Pierre-Alexis Roy, lead author of the study and a doctoral student at the Trottier Institute at the University of Montreal, said in a statement. “Either result will be exciting, whether water vapor is dominant or just a minor species in a hydrogen-dominated environment.”

a planetary puzzle

NASA’s Kepler mission initially discovered the planet when it orbited a red dwarf star in the constellation Pisces in 2017. The exoplanet completes a single orbit around its host star every 6.2 days.

Astronomers observed GJ 9827d during 11 transits over three years, or times when the planet passed in front of its star during its orbit. Starlight filtered through the planet’s atmosphere helped astronomers measure the signatures of water molecules.

“Until now we have not been able to directly detect the atmosphere of such a small planet. And now we are slowly entering this regime,” Beneke said. “At some point, as we study smaller planets, there should be a transition where these smaller worlds no longer have hydrogen, and their atmospheres are more like Venus (where carbon dioxide predominates).”

Better knowledge of the planet’s atmosphere could help astronomers classify what type of world GJ 9827d actually is. Currently, the team has two possible theories.

It is possible that the planet is a mini-Neptune with an atmosphere rich in hydrogen-rich water vapor. If so, it is likely that GJ 9827d formed at a greater distance from the host star than its current location, meaning that the planet was cold and water ice existed in the form (similar to Neptune and Uranus, which are planets). The most distant are) our solar system).

According to the researchers, as the planet approached its star and received more stellar radiation, the hydrogen heated up and escaped, or continued to escape.

Or astronomers suspect that GJ 9827d may be a warmer version of Jupiter’s icy moon Europa, with an ocean beneath a thick icy layer. The planet may be half water and half rock, Benecke said.

discovery of water in space

Water is one of the most common molecules found in the universe, and for years astronomers have included the detection of water as an important part of the search for life beyond Earth.

“Observing water is like looking through a gateway to discover other things,” study co-author Thomas Green, an astrophysicist at NASA’s Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley, California, said in a statement. “This Hubble discovery opens the door to future studies of such planets by the James Webb Space Telescope. JWST can see much more with additional infrared observations, including carbon-carrying molecules such as carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, and methane.” “Once we have a complete list of a planet’s elements, we can compare them to the elements of the star it orbits and understand how it formed.”

Astronomers have already observed GJ 9827d with the Webb telescope to look for water and other types of molecules, and this data will be shared in the future.

“We’re curious to see what that data reveals,” says Kreidberg. “Hopefully, now we can solve the water world issue once and for all.”