Finally, We Found a Planet That's Entirely Covered With Water

Remember's Miller's planet from the movie Interstellar? Well, astronomers may have discovered a similar planet that's entirely covered with an ocean of water. It orbits a star slightly smaller than the Sun in a remarkably short period of just 4.9 days. That’s puzzling because the orbital period of the planet implies that it lies too close to the star. This means that something intriguing is happening on the planet that is allowing it to harbor an ocean of water on its surface. The discovery of this exoplanet has solved another long-standing exoplanet mystery - the radius valley puzzle.

So, how did astronomers discover this distant planet? What clues hint at the possibility of water ocean on its surface? Finally, and most importantly, why is the discovery of this exoplanet so critical to astronomy?