Astronomers have observed a distant planet, which is said to be completely covered in water.
Observations from NASA's James Webb Space Telescope have revealed water vapor, methane and carbon dioxide in the atmosphere of the exoplanet, which is twice the radius of Earth and located 70 light-years away.
This chemical mix is consistent with a watery world where the ocean extends across the surface of the planet, according to Cambridge University researchers. the Guardian, the Telegraph reports.
"The ocean can be over 100 degrees Celsius hot or more," said Prof. Nikku Madhusudhan.
"At high atmospheric pressure, such a hot ocean could still be liquid, but it is not clear if it would be habitable," he added.
This interpretation is being disputed by a Canadian team that made additional observations of the same exoplanet, which is known as TOI-270 d.
They detected the same atmospheric chemicals, but argue that the planet is too hot to have liquid water.
Whatever the truth, these observations reveal the amazing insights the telescope is giving us about the nature of planets beyond our solar system.
The telescope captures starlight filtering through the atmospheres of orbiting planets to provide details of the chemical elements present. From this, astronomers create a picture of the conditions on a planet's surface, and indicate whether life is likely to develop there.
The evidence for TOI-270 d's ocean is based on the absence of ammonia, which chemistry predicts should be naturally present in a hydrogen-rich atmosphere. According to Madhusudhan, the world called 'hycean' is a world with a watery ocean under a hydrogen-rich atmosphere.
But the 'hycean' world hypothesis is being questioned by Prof. Björn Benneke of the University of Montreal.
"The temperature in our view is too high for water to be liquid," Benneke said, adding that the exoplanet's atmosphere appears to contain significant amounts of water vapor to make the existence of an ocean plausible. /Telegraph/
