The timeline below highlights key milestones in our exploration of hycean planets.
Timeline of key events
2021
The term “Hycean’ was first coined, denoting a new class of exoplanets with hydrogen-rich atmospheres and planet-wide oceans with potential for habitability and life.
2022
The James Webb Space Telescope starts scientific operations.
2023
First detections of carbon-bearing molecules in the atmosphere of a habitable-zone exoplanet, the candidate hycean world K2-18 b, with JWST.
2024
More observations and theoretical developments in the understanding of hycean worlds.
2025
Independent evidence for DMS and/or DMDS in K2-18 b from mid-infrared JWST observations.
