NASA Announces Liquid Water May Exist On This Newly Discovered Planet
- 5 years ago
NASA recently announced that a newly discovered planet may have liquid water.
NASA recently announced that a newly discovered planet may have liquid water. Called K2-288Bb, it's located in the Taurus constellation and is estimated to be about 226 light-years away from Earth.
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory notes that the newly found planet lies in a stellar system with two stars. It orbits the smaller of them and makes a trip around it in 31.3 days. Found by citizen scientists, K2-288Bb is roughly twice the size of Earth and, according to NASA, "could be rocky or could be a gas-rich planet similar to Neptune." The agency notes: "Among planets that orbit close to their stars, there's a curious dearth of worlds between about 1.5 and two times Earth's size…Since K2-288Bb's radius places it in this gap, it may provide a case study of planetary evolution within this size range."
NASA recently announced that a newly discovered planet may have liquid water. Called K2-288Bb, it's located in the Taurus constellation and is estimated to be about 226 light-years away from Earth.
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory notes that the newly found planet lies in a stellar system with two stars. It orbits the smaller of them and makes a trip around it in 31.3 days. Found by citizen scientists, K2-288Bb is roughly twice the size of Earth and, according to NASA, "could be rocky or could be a gas-rich planet similar to Neptune." The agency notes: "Among planets that orbit close to their stars, there's a curious dearth of worlds between about 1.5 and two times Earth's size…Since K2-288Bb's radius places it in this gap, it may provide a case study of planetary evolution within this size range."