water world Archives

Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Habitable Zones, Icy Worlds, Mapping, Geodesy, Cartography, Bathymetry, Origin & Evolution of Life, Status Report, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography

Ocean Worlds Working Group Seeking New Science Group Co-Lead

by Keith CowingNovember 22, 2024November 22, 2024

The Ocean Worlds Working Group is seeking a new co-lead for the Science Goals subgroup. The Science Goals subgroup is tasked with developing both immediate and long-term science goals for […]

Magma ocean planets that contain water - like the Earth-like exoplanet GJ 1214 b in this artist's impression - have only a tiny fraction of water on their surface. Most of it is stored deep inside. (Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech/R. Hurt)

Astrochemistry, Astrogeology, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Habitable Zones, Icy Worlds, Status Report, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography

Planets Contain More Water Than Previously Thought

by Keith CowingAugust 21, 2024April 14, 2026

Most of a planet’s water is generally not found on the surface, but is hidden deep inside. This affects the potential habitability of distant worlds, as model calculations by researchers […]

Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Cryobiology, Habitable Zones, Icy Worlds, Mimas, Saturn, Status Report, Tethys, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography

The Evolution Of A Young Ocean Within Mimas

by Keith CowingAugust 19, 2024October 7, 2025

The fractured, young surfaces on confirmed ocean worlds such as Europa and Enceladus suggest that ocean-bearing moons with relatively thin overlying ice shells should be easy to identify. Hence, the […]

MARUM - Center for Marine Environmental Sciences, University of Bremen

Away Teams & Field Reports, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Mapping, Geodesy, Cartography, Bathymetry, Press Release, ROVs/Submersibles/Diving, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography

Ocean World Dynamics: Deep Sea Weather

by Keith CowingAugust 2, 2024August 2, 2024

The seafloor is the final destination for all sorts of particles, like sand, mud, organic carbon that provides food for seafloor organisms, and even pollutants.

Temperate exoplanet LHS 1140 b may be a world completely covered in ice (left) similar to Jupiter’s moon Europa or may be an ice world with a liquid substellar ocean and a cloudy atmosphere (centre). LHS 1140 b is 1.7 times the size of our planet Earth (right) and is the most promising habitable zone exoplanet yet found in the search for liquid water beyond the Solar System. CREDIT Benoit Gougeon, Université de Montréal

Astropharmacy / Biotechnology, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Habitable Zones, Icy Worlds, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Press Release, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography

Webb Telescope Finds A Potentially Habitable Icy World

by Keith CowingJuly 11, 2024July 11, 2024

A international team of astronomers led by Université de Montréal has made an exciting discovery about the temperate exoplanet LHS 1140 b: it could be a promising “super-Earth” covered in […]

Surface water regimes for terrestrial planets ranging from 0.1 M⊕ to 10 M⊕. Each limit between regimes is explained in the text. Planets in either the waterworld, Earth-like, or Dune planet regime may be habitable, while desiccated surfaces are uninhabitable. The transition between surface water regimes depends weakly on planetary mass (cf. Cowan & Abbot 2014) -- astro-ph.EP

Analog Studies, Astrochemistry, Astrogeology, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Habitable Zones, Icy Worlds, Origin & Evolution of Life, Status Report, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography

Water Evolution and Inventories of Super-Earths Orbiting Late M-Dwarfs

by Keith CowingJuly 1, 2024July 1, 2024

Super-Earths orbiting M-dwarf stars may be the most common habitable planets in the Universe. However, their habitability is threatened by intense irradiation from their host stars, which drives the escape […]

Lake Untersee microbial pinnacle structures -- Environmental Microbiology

Analog Studies, Arctic / Antarctic / Alpine, Away Teams & Field Reports, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Dale Andersen's Field Reports, Exploration Gear & Tech, Extremeophiles and Extreme Environments, Genomics, Proteomics, Bioinformatics, Habitable Zones, Icy Worlds, Microbiology & Virology, Robotics/Rovers/UAVs, ROVs/Submersibles/Diving, Status Report, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography

Astrobiology Expedition To Lake Untersee, Antarctica: Genome-resolved Metagenomics Reveals Diverse Taxa And Metabolic Complexity

by Keith CowingJune 18, 2024June 18, 2024

Lake Untersee, a lake in Antarctica that is perennially covered with ice, is home to unique microbial structures that are not lithified.

Away Teams & Field Reports, Commercial & Private Sector, Exploration Gear & Tech, Mapping, Geodesy, Cartography, Bathymetry, Missions & Hardware, Robotics/Rovers/UAVs, ROVs/Submersibles/Diving, Status Report, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography

The Ocean World Droid Power Source You Were Looking For

by Keith CowingJune 18, 2024June 18, 2024

When it comes to mapping new territory, NASA’s record swamps Lewis and Clark’s. And the space agency doesn’t only chart other stars and planets – a vantage point from space […]

Spatial patterns in cGENIE DIC δ13C excursion size and water mass age in response to −1‰ CIE. (A) Relative size of the δ13C excursion recorded for each model grid relative to the mean δ13C excursion in the ocean layer centered at ~3,300 m water depth. δ13C excursions are calculated as the DIC δ13C value at 11 ky less the initial value in that grid. Red colors (more negative) indicate CIEs larger than the average. (B) Atlantic zonal mean size of the δ13C excursion relative to the atmospheric δ13C excursion. δ13C excursions are calculated as the DIC δ13C value at 11 ky less the initial value. Contours show the Atlantic Meridional Overturning streamfunction at 11 ky calculated using the mask in SI Appendix, Fig. S1 (for comparison to the global streamfunction, see SI Appendix, Fig. S2). (C) Relative size of the change in water mass age recorded for each model grid relative to the mean change in water mass age in the ocean layer centered at ~3,300 m water depth. Changes in water mass age are calculated as the water mass age at 11 ky less the initial age in that grid. Red colors indicate larger increases in water mass age than the global average. -- PNAS

Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Extinction events, Gaia - Planetary Perspectives, Habitable Zones, Press Release, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography

Ancient Ocean Slowdown Warns Of Future Climate Chaos On Earth

by Keith CowingJune 13, 2024June 13, 2024

When it comes to the ocean’s response to global warming, we’re not in entirely uncharted waters. A UC Riverside study shows that episodes of extreme heat in Earth’s past caused […]

TESS target pixel files for TOI-260 for sector 3 (left), and for TOI-286 for sector 1 ( right). The remaining sectors are shown in Appendix A. The target star is labelled as 1 and marked by a white cross in each case. All sources from the Gaia DR3 catalogue down to a magnitude contrast of 8 are shown as red circles, with the size proportional to the contrast. The SPOC pipeline aperture is overplotted in shaded red squares. -- astro-ph.EP

Habitable Zones, Status Report, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography

Three Super-Earths And A Possible Water World From TESS And ESPRESSO

by Keith CowingJune 12, 2024June 12, 2024

Since 2018, the ESPRESSO spectrograph at the VLT has been hunting for planets in the Southern skies via the RV method. One of its goals is to follow up candidate […]