From what it is, to how it's special compared to other planets, and more! Join us as we breakdown
The mysterious Exoplanet Gliese 1214 b! 8. Gliese 1214 b
Heading right into things, Gliese 1214 b is a very special planet that was found over a decade ago
and has been very intriguing to scientists ever since its discovery and examination.
Why? Because its atmosphere is not like most exoplanets that have been discovered,
and we do mean that in a very literal way. You see, many scientists have gone and
looked for plants that have water in the atmosphere as well as on the surface.
This is one of the major indicators that the planet could be hospitable for life.
However, with Gliese 1214 b, while there is water in the atmosphere...it's
not exactly the "usual form". By that we mean it apparently is pretty close...to plasma.
"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," principle investigator Norio Narita of the National Astronomical
Observatory of Japan told SPACE.com by email. Using two instruments on the Subaru Telescope
in Mauna Kea, Hawaii, scientists studied the scattering of light from the planet.
Combining their results with previous observations led the astronomers to conclude that the
atmosphere contained significant amounts of water. But again, a good chunk of it is in a plasma form,
which makes it not just incredible unique, but not exactly safe when it comes to use maybe wanting to
use it one day. Because if it's in a state of plasma...that means it's really, REALLY hot.
7. Hot Water, Weird Planet Located 40 light-years from the solar system in
the constellation Ophiuchus, the planet orbits its cooler, low-mass M-type star once every 38 hours,
70 times closer than Earth is to the sun. And as we hopefully don't have to tell you,
the closer you are to a sun, the more heat and radiation you're being exposed to,
which is why the "water" on Gliese 1214 b is superheated to the point of being plasma:
"At high pressure and high temperature, the behavior of water is quite different from
that on the Earth," Narita said. "At the bottom of the water-rich atmosphere of Gliese 1214 b,
water should be a super-critical fluid." And while further study is requested for
a place like this, it's not exactly going to be easier for various reasons. Not the least of which
is that the planet is 6 times the size of Earth, and also 40 light years away. Add to that, the
atmosphere is in such a unique state that there honestly might be TWO atmosphere goings at once!
How does that work? Well, there's the "standard atmosphere" that you would expect for a planet,
and then, there's a believed "haze" that could be covering the planet
due to the high temperatures from the sun. So that in and of itself is going to go and influence how
we try and detect certain things within it. But there are other factors to consider here as well.
6. Lack Of Surface One thing we HAVE been able
to determine about this planet in Gliese 1214 b is that while it's a super giant of a planet (again,
six times larger than Earth) it is one that doesn't have a solid surface. Meaning that it's
either a gaseous planet, or a liquid one. Given the "plasma form" and the liquid-filled
atmosphere, we're leaning towards the later. But, naturally, we can't confirm that easily
due to the sensors being hurt by the various gasses and plasma within the atmosphere.
So much of what we know is guesswork based on what we know already:
"We predict that ionic or plasma water can be seen deep inside the planet," Narita said.
"However, we may not be able to find hot 'ice' — high pressure-ices — inside of Gliese 1214 b."
Though water is often considered a necessary ingredient for life by scientists,
Narita doesn't think that the super-Earth will be promising due to its close orbit,
which lies within the star's habitable zone, the region where liquid water can exist.
"Although water vapor can exist in the atmosphere, liquid water — namely
oceans — would not exist on the surface of this planet," he said. "So unfortunately,
we do not think this planet would be habitable." Which is obviously a bit of a bummer,
as even if it had just a liquid surface and certain other factors
it could've gone and been a candidate for world building, but alas, it is not. That being said,
with its "plasma form" in terms of water, there are still things we can learn from it,
and that means there's more to study. Before we continue our talk about Gliese 1214 b,
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5. Detection Gliese 1214 b was first detected by the MEarth
Project, which searches for the small drops in brightness that can occur when an orbiting planet
briefly passes in front of its parent star. A very clever way to go and detect planets, and it's
gotten a bunch of discoveries as a result of that. It wasn't until 2009 that scientists were able
to go and further look at the data and realize that the sun was being blocked out by a planet
ever one and a half days, proving that there was something going and living there.
And that was indeed Gliese 1214 b. It was after that that scientists were
able to look at the planet closer and look for the various things that made it what it was.
Including the atmosphere that we mentioned. 4. Composition
As we talked about a bit earlier, we honestly don't know what kind of planet Gliese 1214 b is
on the inside. By that we mean a liquid or gaseous planet. There are many who think that it is a
gaseous planet, but that can't be fully proven due to the lack of true scans of the interior.
If it IS a water planet though, then it would be something truly special in the large scale
because it would need to be a very special kind of liquid mixed with the
atmosphere to survive being so close to a sun. One of the biggest reasons why people think it
COULD be a water planet though is the plasma state in the atmosphere. Because that can be one of the
biggest "tells" in terms of a watery composition. Because of the varying pressure at depth,
models of a water world include "steam, liquid, superfluid,
high-pressure ices, and plasma phases" of water. Again, all of this is pretty much guesswork at
present because we still don't have enough data despite having known about it for over a decade,
but that doesn't mean that we can't speculate about it and wonder what else we can learn.
Because each step we take towards learning more about this planet, the more we learn about
the universe itself. 3. The Need To Learn
We've thrown a lot of big words and stats and composition figures at you so far,
but what does it all really mean? Why should we care about Gliese 1214 b and what it's all about?
After all, it's 40 light years away from the Earth, and so we can't get to it even if we wanted
to. And just as important, as noted earlier, there is likely no way it's a habitable planet, so
why should we really care at all about it? Quite simply, because it's there!
Every single planet in our universe is a mystery whether we realize it or not.
Even the Earth and all the planets around it are a mystery because they aren't just there,
but they are THERE in THEIR current state. How did they get to be that way? Why are they that
way right now? And so on and so forth. For a planet like Gliese 1214 b, it has
something special with its "plasma form water" in the atmosphere and that's something we don't
have right now in our own little corner of the galaxy. So we need to go and study it, see what
we can learn from it, and THEN we can move on. Plus, like any good science experiment, anything
we learn from this planet, we can go and test on the next planet that might just be like Gliese
1214 b. Because if said two planets are the same, then suddenly we have a pattern! And patterns can
help lead to major scientific discoveries, which is exactly what we need in the realm of Astronomy
because there is still so much more we don't know. In fact, we'd bet that you watching didn't
even know that this planet existed until you watched this video. So that right there is all
the reason to go and learn more, because it was a literal hole in your knowledge.
2. The Universe At Large Another reason that Gliese 1214
b is so important to us on a scientific level is that it can help be a dot on a
chart of all the planets that are out there. What do we mean by that? Well, if you look at
our solar system, you will find planets that are barren (Mars, Mercury), planets that are overrun
by their atmospheres (Venus), gas giants (Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune), small anomalies (Pluto,
IT'S A PLANET!) and of course, Earth. And while we do have a certain amount of diversity amongst us,
there is SO much more out there in the universe just waiting to be discovered.
There are planets out there that are pink in hue, there are planets out there that aren't spherical,
but are instead shaped like eggs. There are those that are slowly being consumed by black holes!
Ones that are partly comprised of diamond that if mined (just for reference) would be worth
more money than you could possibly realize. And now, we have a planet in Gliese 1214 b
that has an atmosphere with plasma water. So yeah, that's pretty cool, wouldn't you say?
Our universe is full of many different kinds of planets, and that's part of its wonder.
We need to find these planets and then line them all up to see if we've discovered everything, or
if there's more that needs to be found. Given that the universe is virtually endless
(especially if you're one who believes it's growing every single minutes of every single day)
then you know that there's so much more to explore, and that's fun in and of itself.
1. What's Next For Gliese 1214 b?
As for what's next for our wondrous plasma planet, there is a great deal more to research. It's
doubtful we'll be able to get a probe there in a good amount of time, so instead we'll be using
the various telescopes and satellites that can monitor it to discern further details about it.
There's still so much we don't know about its atmosphere, is terrestrial composition,
how it was formed, and the various layers from top to bottom that make it what it is right now.
So we're going to research it more, and when we find out more
about it? It's going to be a big deal. Thanks for watching, everyone! What
did you think of this look at The mysterious Exoplanet Gliese 1214 b? Were you amazed that
such an exoplanet exists out there in space? What do you think is its most special feature? Are you
curious to see what other planets like this are out there? Let us know in the comments below!