Nearby alien planet may have strange ‘plasma’ water atmosphere

The recent discovery of a water-rich atmosphere on a nearby alien world has been updated with a very interesting twist — some of the water deep down in this planet's atmosphere may exist in a strange 'plasma' form.

Orbiting around a small red-dwarf star about 40 light years away, the planet Gliese 1214 b is a world of extremes — roughly two and a half times the size of Earth and over six times as massive, and so close to its star that it takes only 38 hours to complete a full orbit and it has a temperature of about 280 degrees Celcius. It may be called a 'super-Earth', but it is anything but Earth-like. From the size and mass of the planet astronomers believe that it is actually much more like the planet Neptune. It probably has no solid surface, but instead has an atmosphere that actually extends all the way down to its core, changing from gas to liquid and possibly to ice, the deeper you go.

It was announced in early September that astronomers using the Subaru telescope saw evidence for a water-rich atmosphere surrounding Gliese 1214 b, and the size and mass of the planet, along with the heat from being so close to its star, likely combine to create some very interesting effects in the planet's lower atmosphere.

"As the temperature and pressure are so high, water is not in a usual form (vapor, liquid, or solid), but in an ionic or plasma form at the bottom the atmosphere — namely the interior — of Gliese 1214 b," said Norio Narita of the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, according to Space.com.

The water starts off as vapour high up in the atmosphere of course, but deeper down the intense heat and pressure cause the water to become a 'super-critical fluid', where it can act as both a liquid and a gas at the same time.

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Gliese 1214 b is a very unusual world. It is so close to its star that it completes a year in less than two of our days, and it's so hot that none of us could survive there. Yet its size and mass combined to allow it to actually have water in its atmosphere. With this supply of water, could it harbour life? According to Narita, it's unlikely. However, given that we find life in the most extreme environments here on our planet, it's not impossible.

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