Astronomers Have Found A New Nearby Planet That May Be Entirely Covered In Water.

TOI-1452 b is an exoplanet slightly larger and more massive than Earth, about 100 light-years away from our planet in the constellation Draco. In a paper published Wednesday in The Astronomical Journal, researchers from the University of Montreal determine that the planet’s mass suggests it is largely composed of something less dense than rock, but denser than gas — a possible sign of a global ocean. “TOI-1452 b is one of the best candidates for an ocean planet we’ve found to date,” University of Montreal astrophysics PhD student Charles Cadieux he said in a statement. “Its radius and mass suggest a much lower density than would be expected for a planet composed primarily of metal and rock like Earth.” TOI-1452 b first came to the attention of astronomers via Nasa’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, or Tess spacecraft, which studies distant stars for telltale dips in their light that indicate a passing exoplanet, which passes, the star. The Tess data suggested the existence of an exoplanet, but the observation was inconclusive. The star TOI-1452 b is in orbit, part of a binary star system, and Tess lacks the power to distinguish individual stars in this system. However, the Université Observatoire du Mont-Mégantic (OMM), together with new analytical methods, was able to confirm that TOI-1452 b exists. “OMM played a critical role in confirming the nature of this signal and estimating the radius of the planet,” said Mr Cadieux. “It was not a routine check. We had to make sure that the signal detected by TESS was really caused by an exoplanet orbiting TOI-1452, the larger of the two stars in this binary system.” An instrument installed on the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope in Hawaii then measured the planet’s mass. Unlike Earth, which is a mostly rocky and metallic planet with water covering about 70% of its surface, TOI-1452 b appears to be largely, but not entirely, water, with about 30% of its mass coming from the liquid. This is a type of deep global ocean that is more similar to the deep waters believed to lie beneath the icy crust of Saturn’s moon Enceladus than to Earth’s oceans. Water makes up less than 1% of our planet’s mass. Exoplanets are located outside our solar system. It’s not yet certain that TOI-1452 b is an ocean world and what that might mean for the chances of finding alien life in its waters, but researchers note that the James Webb Space Telescope may soon be able to help penetrate its mystery of the strange new water world.