LHS 1140 b sits within its star's habitable zone. This possibly Earth-like world could be veiled by an atmosphere and harbor a liquid ocean.
Temperate exoplanet LHS 1140 b may be a world completely covered in ice similar to Jupiter’s moon Europa or be an ice world with a liquid substellar ocean and a cloudy atmosphere .
“This is the first time we have ever seen a hint of an atmosphere on a habitable zone rocky or ice-rich exoplanet,” said Ryan MacDonald, NASA Sagan Fellow in the U-M Department of Astronomy.New data from the James Webb Space Telescope, combined with observations from other telescopes, provide tantalizing clues about LHS 1140 b.
LHS 1140 b sits within its star’s habitable zone known as the Goldilocks Zone. The zone allows the planet to have temperatures that allow liquid water to exist on its surface – a key ingredient for life as we know it. “LHS 1140 b is one of the best small exoplanets in the habitable zone capable of supporting a thick atmosphere, and we might just have found evidence of air on this world,” MacDonald added.
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