When hunting for exoplanets that could potentially host life, one big factor that scientists consider in habitability is the presence of water. The presence of liquid water is required for almost all life as we know it, so when looking for other worlds which might host life, looking for water is a good place to start.
“The two different ways to discover planets each give you different information,” explained co-author Enric Pallé of the Institute of Astrophysics of the Canary Islands and the University of La Laguna in a statement. The transit method tells you about the planet’s diameter and the radial velocity method tells you about its mass. When both size and mass are considered together, you can see the density of a planet — whether it is light and puffy or small and dense.
“I was shocked when I saw this analysis — I and a lot of people in the field assumed these were all dry, rocky planets,” said exoplanet scientist Jacob Bean of the University of Chicago, who will be conducting future research into this topic.