The find could boost the search for alien life.
A new type of exoplanet — one made half of rock and half of water — has been discovered around the most common stars in the universe, which may have great consequences in the search for life in the cosmos, researchers say.
In the new study, astrophysicists sought to examine the compositions of exoplanets around red dwarfs. They focused on small worlds found around closer — and thus brighter and easier to inspect — red dwarfs observed by NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite . In the new study, astrophysicists ultimately analyzed 34 exoplanets about which they had precise data on diameter and mass. These details helped the researchers estimate the densities of these worlds and deduce their likely compositions.
The scientists' planetary formation models suggest the small planets they detected likely evolved in three different ways. The rocky planets may have formed from relatively dry material near their stars.The small rocky planets have a density"nearly identical to Earth's," study co-author Enric Pallé, an astrophysicist at the Institute of Astrophysics of the Canary Islands, told Space.com."That means their compositions must be very, very similar.
Although the rocky planets are relatively poor in water and the watery planets rich in it, that might not mean the former are arid and the latter are covered in oceans, the researchers said.
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