Summary: <p>With data from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, water vapour has been detected in the atmosphere of a super-Earth within the habitable zone by University College London (UCL) researchers in a world first. K2-18b, which is eight times the mass of Earth, is now the only planet orbiting a star outside the Solar System, or exoplanet, known to have both water and temperatures that could support life.</p> <p>The discovery, published today in <em>Nature Astronomy</em>, is the first successful atmospheric detection of an exoplanet orbiting in its star’s habitable zone, at a distance where water can exist in liquid form.</p> <p>First author, Dr Angelos Tsiaras (UCL Centre for Space Exochemistry Data,CSED), said: <em>“Finding water on a potentially habitable world other than Earth is incredibly exciting. K2-18b is not ‘Earth 2.0’ as it is significantly heavier and has a different atmospheric composition. However, it brings us closer to answering the fundamental question: Is the Earth unique?”</em></p> --- Support this podcast: <a href="https://anchor.fm/space-news/support" rel="payment">https://anchor.fm/space-news/support</a>
