Scientists have discovered a planet that is completely covered by a thick layer of water. The ocean planet is orbiting a star nearly 100 light years from the Earth.
The thick layer of water is comparable to some of Jupiter's and Saturn's moons.
The newly discovered planet, which is bigger and heavier than Earth, could support life as it's in a sufficient distance from its star. The planet TOI-1452 b is discovered by a team of researchers lef by Charles Cadieux, who is a member of the Institute for Research on Exoplanets (iREx). The exoplanet is orbiting one of two small stars in a binary system located in the Draco constellation.
The exoplanet TOI-1452 b is probably rocky like our planet, but its radius, mass, and density suggest a world very different from our own, the experts suggest. The exoplanet's host star TOI-1452 is much smaller than our sun and is one of two stars of similar size in the binary system, according to Daily Mail.
Rene Doyon, Universite de Montreal Professor and Director of iREx and of the Observatoire du Mont-Megantic (OMM) stated that he's extremely proud of this discovery because it shows the high calibre of our researchers and instrumentation.
'It is thanks to the OMM, a special instrument designed in our labs called SPIRou, and an innovative analytic method developed by our research team that we were able to detect this one-of-a-kind exoplanet,' said Doyon.
Water may account for up to 30% of TOI-1452 b's mass, according to analysis. The proportion of water is comparable to that of some natural satellites in our Solar System, including as Jupiter's moons Ganymede and Callisto, and Saturn's moons Titan and Enceladus.
The new $10 billion (£7.4 billion) James Webb Space Telescope, which NASA launched this month, is anticipated to be the ideal candidate for additional observations of TOI-1452 b.
