K2-18b: Habitable ocean world may actually be inhospitable gas planet


An artist’s impression showing K2-18b as a potentially habitable ocean world may not be correct

NASA, CSA, ESA, J. Olmsted (STScI)

A distant planet once touted as a potential location to look for alien life is actually most likely to be inhospitable, according to astronomers who have found it probably lacks a solid surface.

In 2015, astronomers discovered a planet 110 light years away called K2-18b, which later analysis estimated to be a super-Earth or mini-Neptune about eight times the mass of our world.…



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