We're limited to the kinds of extra-solar planets we can detect from here so we get a skewed picture that makes is appear that the universe is full of gas giants that orbit close to their stars. It probably is but there are probably also lots of little rocky worlds that we can't see that we'll find when we get closer to them.
But this particular planet is a doozy. Says the article, it's too hot for liquid water but the pressures must cause ice to form. I had never before considered the possibility of "hot ice" but it becomes kinda obvious when you think about it.
However.
There must be something that I'm not understanding from this summary of the results of the astronomy. Why can't this planet be made of methane or whatever like Neptune? What makes them think that there's water there?
Also, either the writer or the astronomers have shown the usual lack of imagination in their assessment that "the conditions would not be right for life to exist there." We're terribly, terribly committed to life only working the way it does at our temperature and pressure ranges. I don't really have any doubt that if we live long enough as a species, we'll find that our definitions of life are decidedly odd to the rest of the folks living in the universe.
No comments:
Post a Comment