New Planet Discovered? Scientists Find Water Clouds in Exoplanet With Earth-Like Temperature

Scientists have recently discovered an exoplanet positioned 90 light-years from Earth and it is believed to have contained water clouds.

Exoplanets, CNN reported, are planets located outside of the solar system. Such an exoplanet, identified as TOI-1231 b, completes an entire full orbit round its star every 24 Earth days.

The newly-discovered planet orbits an M-type or red dwarf star, identified as NLTT 24399, that is smaller and dimmer compared to stars like the Sun.

The detection of the planet was described in detail in a new study to be published in The Astronomical Journal.

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Reason for Containing Cloud Waters

According to study co-author Diana Dragomir, assistant professor at the Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Mexico, even though TOI -1231 b is eight times closer to its star, compared to Earth's to the Sun, its temperature is the same as that of Earth because of its cooler and less bright host star.

Still, the planet itself is larger compared to Earth, not to mention a little bit smaller compared to Neptune and could be called a sub-Neptune, Dragomir said.

Researchers were able to measure the radius and mass of the planet which helped them compute its density and infer its structure, ABC 7 reported.

As described in the study, TOI-1231 b is a low-density exoplanet, suggesting it is a gaseous planet instead of a rocky one like Earth. Researchers have yet to determine the structure and the atmosphere of the exoplanet.

Among the Coolest of the Small Exoplanets

According to Jennifer Burt, the lead study author and a postdoctoral fellow at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, TOI-1231 b is similar to the size and density of Neptune, leading scientists to speculate that it has the same large, gaseous atmosphere.

Dragomir explained that TOI-1231 b could comprise of a large hydrogen or hydrogen-helium atmosphere, or a thicker water vapor atmosphere.

Each of these types of atmosphere would enable astronomers to understand if and how planets form differently around M-type or red dwarf stars when compared to planets surrounding the Sun in the Solar System, according to STScI.

The study authors believe the newly-discovered exoplanet has an average temperature of 140 degrees Fahrenheit, making it one of the coolest of the tiny exoplanets, making it an ideal subject for the future research of its atmosphere.

"TOl-1231 b is one of the only other planets we know of in a similar size and temperature range, so future observations of this new planet will let us determine just how common (or rare) it is for water clouds to form around these temperate worlds," Burt said in a statement.

This makes TOl-1231 b an ideal observation candidate by the Hubble Space Telescope or the James Webb Space Telescope which will be launched into space in October. The Webb telescope is able to determine the composition of the atmospheres of exoplanets.

The Webb will have the capability of peering into the exoplanets' atmospheres and help identify their structure, And Hubble is slated to observe the exoplanet in the latter part of June.

Related information about TOI-1231 b is shown on Space Sci Network's YouTube video below: