These planets open up a new vista in our search for extraterrestrial life.
When we look for life in faraway places, we generally look for planets that look like our own in terms of size, mass, temperature, and atmospheric composition. However, astronomers from the University of Cambridgethat are substantially different from our own but could potentially host life.
This revelation could accelerate the search for life outside our Solar System, bolstering the belief that biosignatures of life could be discovered within the next two or three years., this new class of habitable worlds, dubbed 'Hycean' planets which is a portmanteau of the words hydrogen and ocean, are hot and covered in massive planet-wide oceans with hydrogen-rich atmospheres.
The researchers, led by Nikku Madhusudhan from Cambridge’s Institute of Astronomy, have identified prime Hycean candidates, and while these are bigger and hotter than our planet, they still have the traits to host huge seas capable of supporting microbial life equivalent to those observed in Earth's most harsh aquatic settings.
The team also provided a set of biosignatures that astronomers should look for while searching for these worlds, as well as a list of promising Hycean candidates that are, in cosmic terms, nearby. The researchers have discovered 11 possible Hycean worlds orbiting neighboring stars, all of which are red dwarfs between 35-150 light-years away and regarded as good biosignature targets. The most promising of these is K2-18b, and it will be observed with the"A biosignature detection would transform our understanding of life in the universe," says Dr. Nikku Madhusudhan.
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