The NASA Hubble Space Telescope has successfully detected water signatures on five alien planets. This surprised the scientists as these planets were known to have temperatures as hot as Jupiter which made it seem impossible to sustain life.
In 1995, an atmospheric probe was sent to Jupiter to analyze its atmosphere. The probe collected a temperature of 153 degrees Celsius. The atmosphere was so hot that it destroyed the spacecraft studying it. Scientists believed that it may have either melted or vaporized the spacecraft.
The five alien planets or exoplanets were found to have not only the same size of Jupiter but also of same temperatures. It may sound like life couldn’t exist in such high temperatures. However, detection of water in these huge exoplanets could signify alien life could exist. Two separate studies led to similar conclusion.
The first study was led by Avi Mandell of Maryland’s NASA Goddard Space Flight Center while the second study was led by University of Maryland’s Drake Deming. Both papers were published in The Astrophysical Journal, the first on December 3 and the other earlier in September.
Both research groups had carefully observed the starlight that was transiting through the scorching-hot five planets’ atmosphere.
"We're very confident that we see a water signature for multiple planets. This work really opens the door for comparing how much water is present in atmospheres on different kinds of exoplanets — for example, hotter versus cooler ones," said Mandell to Space.com.
Out of these five Jupiter-sized planets, which were named WASP-17b, HD209458b, WASP-12b, WASP-19b and XO-1b, the WASP-17b and HD209458b had the highest level of water content in its atmosphere. All had indications of water although they were not as concentrated as they thought possible because of the hazy dust particles surrounding them.
"To actually detect the atmosphere of an exoplanet is extraordinarily difficult. But we were able to pull out a very clear signal, and it is water," said Deming.
These two studies backed up by NASA’s Hubble observations show that life can exist even on extremely hot planets.
