Water is ‘common’ on alien worlds, scientists say in finding that could transform search for extraterrestrial life – The Independent, Independent
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Water is “common” on alien worlds, scientists have found in a study that could change our understanding of how planets form and where we might find alien life.
The discovery comes from the most extensive survey of the chemical compositions of planets ever conducted, and challenges our search for water in our own solar system and elsewhere.
Water is thought to be a key component of extraterrestrial life, and so finding it elsewhere in the universe is likely to be central to discovering whether aliens exist elsewhere in the universe.
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The researchers used data from () exoplanetsto get detailed measurements of the chemical and thermal properties of exoplanets. They looked at a wide variety of different worlds, from relatively small “mini-Neptunes” only 14 times bigger than our Earth to “super-Jupiters” that are as big as of our own planet, and from places that are between C and C.
They found that water was “common” across many of those exoplanets. But they also discovered that there was less of it on those planets than expected, and there was great variety between the different kinds of worlds.
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