In their eagerness to find life on other planets, an international group of scientists decided to examine systems of red dwarfs, which are the most common type of stars in our universe, and discovered planets formed mostly by water.
In their study, published in the journal Science, Rafael Luque and Enric Pallé measured the density of 43 planets for which they had precise data on diameter and mass. The objective was to determine the possible composition of each of them. Astrophysicists divided the planets into three groups: those that have a rocky composition, those that are formed by gas and those that seem to contain 50% of rocky material and another 50% of water.
Rafael Luque said it was a surprise to find that there are many aquatic worlds orbiting around the most common type of star in the galaxy. At the same time, scientists stressed that the planets look different from ours, as all this water is probably inside the rocks, rather than flowing in oceans and rivers across the surface.
Although the evidence indicates that there is water on many planets, this discovery does not mean that they harbor life, but, according to Luque, it has enormous repercussions for the search for habitable planets. (Text and photo: RT in Spanish)
