Could Humans Live On Planet K2-18b? Water Found On Most Habitable Known World

Astronomers have for the first time discovered signs of liquid water on a planet beyond the solar system with temperatures that could support life. This planet, dubbed K2-18b, orbits a red dwarf star in the Leo constellation roughly 110 lightyears from Earth and has about eight times the mass of humanity’s current.

According to findings published in Nature Astronomy journal on Wednesday, the research team used data gathered between 2016 and 2017 by the Hubble Space Telescope to make their findings.

Observing starlight as it passed through the exoplanet’s atmosphere, the team found distinct signs of water vapor. As K2-18b sits in the “Goldilocks zone” – not too hot, not too cold – it possesses the correct temperatures for liquid what and to potentially support life by earthly definitions, CNN reports.

“This is the first potentially habitable planet where the temperature is right and where we now know there is water,” Angelos Tsiaras, an astronomer at University College London, said. “It’s the best candidate for habitability right now.”

Still, the size of this planet and its proximity to a red sun would make life troublesome, if not impossible, for humans of Earth, the Guardian notes.

With eight times the mass comes eight times the gravity of Earth, meaning average humans would weigh around one ton. The UV rays from the planet’s red sun would drive up the rate of cancerous mutations in humans.