Exoplanet K2-18b (artist's impression)
Date: 11 September 2019
Satellite: Hubble Space Telescope
Copyright: ESA/Hubble, M. Kornmesser, CC BY 4.0
This artist's impression shows the planet K2-18b, it's host star and an accompanying planet in this system. K2-18b is now the only super-Earth exoplanet known to host both water and temperatures that could support life.
UCL researchers used archive data from 2016 and 2017 captured by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope and developed open-source algorithms to analyse the starlight filtered through K2-18b's atmosphere. The results revealed the molecular signature of water vapour, also indicating the presence of hydrogen and helium in the planet's atmosphere.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. 
Last Update: 13 September 2019
