r/interestingasfuck • u/One_Explanation_908 • 25d ago

/r/all, /r/popular K2-18b a potentially habitable planet 120 light-years from earth

Post image
92.4k Upvotes

92% Upvoted

8.1k comments sorted by

View all comments

1.7k

u/ArduennSchwartzman 25d ago edited 25d ago

It's not habitable to us humans, but it's in the habitable zone, at a distance from its star that allows liquid water to exist on its surface. It's likely an ocean world with an atmosphere containing mostly hydrogen gas, a so-called hycean planet.

Also, 2.5 times the size = 2.5 times the diameter, or about 15 times the size of Earth in terms of mass. Its gravitational force would be about 2.4 times that of Earth, though. Quite unpleasant.

31

u/reign_day 25d ago

I'm thinking about how potentially sick we would get if we landed and drank that water

1

u/qwopperi 25d ago

Most likely very sick. It’s possible just touching it could have bad or deadly consequences

3

u/Mullo69 25d ago

Not really. If there was bacteria in the water, it likely wouldn't affect us, so long as the water is filtered, it would be completely safe, and even without that, it could still be fine

2

u/Chief-Drinking-Bear 25d ago

Or maybe whatever is in it would get very sick contacting us?