James Webb provides first evidence of exoplanet in ocean

Planetary fauna is much larger than that of our own solar system. Oceanic planets, for example, which are completely absent around our star, are stars that are entirely covered by an ocean of water or perhaps other volatile compounds. Until then, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has provided the first concrete evidence that the exoplanet LHS1140b could be an oceanic planet.

This exoplanet has already been observed by so many observatories on Earth and in space that it is not completely unknown to us. We already know that LHS1140b is located 48 light-years away, that it has a mass roughly six times that of Earth, and a radius 1.7 times larger. Its density already suggests that the planet could be covered in water, accounting for as much as 9 to 19 percent of its mass. A density that could previously be explained by a thick envelope of hydrogen and helium.

Huge ocean!

To make the determination, Jwst observed LHS1140b with its NIRISS instrument. The results showed that the exoplanet had lost its hydrogen-helium atmosphere, findings that could be independently confirmed by analyzing the exoplanet with another Jwst instrument, NIRSpec, at different wavelengths. In conclusion, LHS1140b’s special density appears to be due solely to the presence of a large amount of water, which must be partly in liquid form, making this exoplanet the first ocean world ever discovered.