NASA's Hubble Telescope finds water vapour in distant planet's atmosphere

Water, the all-dissolving 'universal solvent' is almost a sure hint of life, or at least for theories about it. no matter where it is found in the cosmos. So for a civilisation likeours, eager to find alien life, the presence of water, or even water vapour anywhere in space, is a signal for more probing. Astronomers have found an exoplanet, twice the size of Earth with water vapour in its atmosphere. The astronomers used Hubble Space Telescope, the trusty ol' piece of high technology still doing its job perfectly even when James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is the hot thing right now.

The planet has been designated GJ 9827d. The exoplanet is 97 light-years away from Earth and revolves around a star designated as GJ 9827. The planet revolves around the red dwarf star once in every 6.2 days. So in other words, a 'year' on the planet is shorter than a week, by our Earthly reference points.

"This would be the first time that we can directly show through an atmospheric detection, that these planets with water-rich atmospheres can actually exist around other stars," said team member Björn Benneke from Trottier Institute for Research on Exoplanets at Université de Montréal.

"This is an important step toward determining the prevalence and diversity of atmospheres on rocky planets."

Benneke was quoted by NASA.

The planet itself was discovered in 2017, but the detection of water in atmosphere is a new discovery.

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"Water on a planet this small is a landmark discovery," added co-principal investigator Laura Kreidberg from Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Heidelberg, as quoted by NASA.

"It pushes closer than ever to characterizing truly Earth-like worlds."

However, it is too early to tell if the water is present in a 'puffy hydrogen-rich atmosphere' or the planet itself has an abundance of water.

"Our observing program, led by principal investigator Ian Crossfield of Kansas University in Lawrence, Kansas, was designed specifically with the goal to not only detect the molecules in the planet's atmosphere, but to actually look specifically for water vapor. Either result would be exciting, whether water vapor is dominant or just a tiny species in a hydrogen-dominant atmosphere," said the science paper's lead author, Pierre-Alexis Roy form Trottier Institute.

"Until now, we had not been able to directly detect the atmosphere of such a small planet. And we're slowly getting in this regime now," added Benneke. "At some point, as we study smaller planets, there must be a transition where there's no more hydrogen on these small worlds, and they have atmospheres more like Venus (which is dominated by carbon dioxide)."

So is there life on the planet?

It tough to determine right now because it is a Venus-like planet with high surface temperature (800 degrees Fahrenheit).

But it's perhaps ok to say that 'Life finds a way' and where there's water, there is (or will be) life.

Probably a soothing thought for those pondering the distressing question of 'Are we alone in the Universe?'

(With inputs from agencies)