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You mean like Venus? Why is this interesting? Is it because of the water, or because of the technical capabilities of the instrument?
by jl2718 3y ago
You mean like Venus?
Why is this interesting? Is it because of the water, or because of the technical capabilities of the instrument?
- phailhaus 3y agoLiterally the subheading: "If confirmed, the presence of an atmosphere would be a breakthrough for exoplanet research."
- ramraj07 3y agoI mean yes, but also meh. They’re making the progress they need to but purely deducing from logic why will it be surprising that a good fraction of exoplanets have water when when a good fraction in our system do. The main breakthrough is detecting anything at all on an exoplanet which can hopefully expand to more biologically relevant molecules in the future.
- jjk166 3y agoWe don't know if planets orbiting close to red dwarfs can keep their atmospheres, so finding an atmosphere on such a planet would settle that debate. That the atmospheric composition detected is water is mostly irrelevant.