{"id":14754,"date":"2025-04-20T14:17:25","date_gmt":"2025-04-20T08:47:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=14754"},"modified":"2025-05-28T12:48:15","modified_gmt":"2025-05-28T07:18:15","slug":"k2-18b-exoplanet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/k2-18b-exoplanet\/","title":{"rendered":"K2-18b"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>K2-18b Latest News<\/h2>\n<p>In 2025, scientists detected the presence of either dimethyl sulphide (DMS) or dimethyl disulphide (DMDS) in the atmosphere of K2-18b.<\/p>\n<h2>What is K2-18b?<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>K2-18b<\/strong>\u00a0is an\u00a0<strong>exoplanet<\/strong>\u00a0(a planet located\u00a0<strong>outside our solar system<\/strong>) situated\u00a0<strong>124 light-years away<\/strong>\u00a0from Earth in the\u00a0<strong>constellation Leo<\/strong>, orbiting a star called\u00a0<strong>K2-18<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>It was\u00a0<strong>discovered in 2015<\/strong>\u00a0by the\u00a0<strong>Kepler Space Telescope<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li><strong>K2-18b is 5.2 times wider and around 9 times more massive<\/strong>\u00a0than Earth, suggesting it may possess a\u00a0<strong>hydrogen-rich atmosphere<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>The planet receives a\u00a0<strong>similar level of stellar radiation<\/strong>\u00a0from its star as Earth does from the Sun, hinting at the possibility of\u00a0<strong>habitable surface conditions<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Atmospheric Discoveries<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>In\u00a0<strong>2019<\/strong>, the\u00a0<strong>Hubble Space Telescope<\/strong>\u00a0detected\u00a0<strong>water vapour<\/strong>\u00a0in the atmosphere of K2-18b.<\/li>\n<li>Later, the\u00a0<strong>James Webb Space Telescope (JWST)<\/strong>\u00a0found the presence of\u00a0<strong>carbon dioxide (CO\u2082)<\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0<strong>methane (CH\u2084)<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>The\u00a0<strong>absence of ammonia<\/strong>\u00a0along with CO\u2082 and CH\u2084 in a\u00a0<strong>hydrogen-rich atmosphere<\/strong>\u00a0is significant because it may indicate the\u00a0<strong>possible presence of a liquid water ocean<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>About Dimethyl Sulphide (DMS)<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>DMS is considered a potential biomarker<\/strong>\u00a0because, on\u00a0<strong>Earth<\/strong>, it is mostly produced by\u00a0<strong>phytoplankton<\/strong>\u00a0in the\u00a0<strong>oceans<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>DMS is formed when phytoplankton die and enzymes break down\u00a0<strong>dimethylsulphoniopropionate<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>It is also released when\u00a0<strong>soil bacteria<\/strong>\u00a0decompose plant matter and in trace amounts during\u00a0<strong>volcanic eruptions<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>A\u00a0<strong>2015 study<\/strong>\u00a0found that\u00a0<strong>76% of soil bacteria<\/strong>\u00a0on Earth contain a\u00a0<strong>gene that produces DMS<\/strong>, reinforcing its biological origin.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Source:\u00a0<\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/sci-tech\/science\/does-the-planet-k2-18b-show-signs-of-life-explained\/article69469160.ece\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">TH<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>K2-18b is an exoplanet 124 light-years away in the Leo constellation, orbiting the star K2-18 outside our solar system.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":42221,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[196,21,23],"class_list":{"0":"post-14754","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","8":"tag-k2-18b","9":"tag-prelims-pointers","10":"tag-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","11":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14754","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14754"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14754\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42221"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14754"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14754"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14754"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}