Scientists Find Habitable Hycean Planet

Photo illustration (Daniel Olah/Unsplash)

JAKARTA - Scientists at the University of Cambridge have reportedly discovered a new exoplanet, a term for planets outside the Solar System. Dubbed Hycean, this planet is claimed to be a habitable planet. Although very different from Earth, it can still support life.

The Hycean planet, as the name implies, is covered by an ocean with abundant hydrogen in its atmosphere. Researchers believe that this type of planet is potentially habitable. Significantly, the new type of planet increases the possibility of a location for finding other life outside the Solar System.

"The Hycean planet opens a new avenue in our search for life elsewhere", said lead researcher, Nikku Madhusudhan, of the University of Cambridge Astronomy Institute as quoted from Digital Trends, Sunday, August 29.

Usually, this type of planet is larger than Earth, up to 2.6 times, and the weather is hotter, with an atmospheric temperature of up to 200 degrees Celsius. However, despite these high temperatures, their oceans can still host microbial life, as other recent research suggests, of large exoplanets with hydrogen-rich atmospheres.

The study also found that there may be water on the planet's surface below its atmosphere. That means, the habitable zone lies in the area around the star, where a planet must orbit for water to exist on its surface.

"Basically, while we've been looking for these molecular signatures, we've focused on planets similar to Earth, which is a reasonable place to start. But we think the Hycean planets offer a better chance of finding some traces of biosignatures using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST)", said Madhusudhan.

Biosignatures are known to be chemical indications of life and are one of the main ways researchers look for life elsewhere in the universe.

"Biosignature detection will change our understanding of life in the universe. We must be open about where we hope to find life and what life forms are because nature continues to surprise us in often unexpected ways", said Madhusudhan.