Water found on planet outside the solar system

[Karlos]

Not the nicest place to find it though ;-)

[Karlos]

@AGAFaster

I think you are looking at a different extrasolar planet. The one in the article is a gas giant in a very tight orbit around its parent star and is candidate for a chthonian planet. Its atmosphere is presently being stripped away by a combination of the solar wind and the extremely high atmospheric temperature (as you may know, the RMS speed of gas molecules increases with temperature). The estimated temperatures on this planet are in excess of 1000 celsius. Hydrogen is literally being "boiled off" and carrying many other gases (including the detected water vapour) with it.

[Karlos]

@Agafaster

Ah yes, Gleise 581c. Given it could be around 50% larger (and hence maybe up to 5x more massive) than earth, the surface gravity could be up to 2x or more than we experience here. Anything evolving there would probably be pretty robust :-)

Given the proximity to the star it's possible it could be tidally locked. Even if it isn't, the tidal forces exerted on any oceans it may have would still surely be far stronger than anything we see here. High tide really would be high!