A planetary body rich in water found


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A planetary body rich in water found

 

LONDON: In a first, astronomers have found a water-rich rocky planetary body outside our solar system with basic ingredients for a habitable planet, raising hope for presence of alien life in the universe.

Scientists believe the discovery of the remnants of a rocky world with huge amounts of water is the first time they have found these basic ingredients for life in one place outside the solar system.

A new study at the Universities of Warwick and Cambridge analyzed the dust and debris surrounding the white dwarf star GD 61, 170 light years away.

Using observations from Hubble Space Telescope and the large Keck telescope on Hawaii, scientists found an excess of oxygen ? a chemical signature that indicates that the debris had once been part of a bigger body originally composed of 26% water by mass. By contrast, only approximately 0.023% of Earth's mass is water.

The researchers suggest it is most likely that the water detected around the white dwarf GD 61 came from a minor planet at least 90 km in diameter but potentially much bigger, that once orbited the parent star before it became a white dwarf. In its former life, GD 61 was a star somewhat bigger than our Sun, and host to a planetary system, researchers said.

 

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