water world Archives

Illustration of Earth’s interior revealing subducting water and a rising plume of magma. At the interface where subducting water meets the core, a chemical exchange occurs to form a hydrogen-rich layer in the topmost outer core and dense silica in the bottom of the mantle. Image courtesy Yonsei University

Astrogeology, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Press Release, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography

Surface Water Dives Deep And Transforms Earth’s Core’s Outer Layer

by Keith CowingNovember 15, 2023November 15, 2023

A few decades ago, seismologists imaging the deep planet identified a thin layer, just over a few hundred kilometers thick. The origin of this layer, known as the E prime […]

The mass-radius relations of the simulated planets from our migration and in-situ models both of which are found to explain the mass-radius relations of the observed planets. However, they predict completely different bulk compositions which can be reflected in the atmospheric composition. -- astro-ph.EP

Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Gaia - Planetary Perspectives, Habitable Zones, Status Report, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography

Where Are The Water Worlds? Identifying The Exo-water-worlds Using Models of Planet Formation and Atmospheric Evolution

by Keith CowingOctober 7, 2023October 7, 2023

Planet formation models suggest that the small exoplanets that migrate from beyond the snowline of the protoplanetary disk likely contain water-ice-rich cores (∼50% by mass), also known as the water […]

3D GCM output at 40◦ obliquity and H2=10% for the rain precipitation, snow and ice fraction at the surface, snowfall, sea/ground surface temperature. Black contour lines represent surface elevation level (-2000, 0, 2000 and 8000 meters) and the red contour line is the paleo-shoreline (-3900 meters). -- astro-ph.EP

Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Mars, Status Report, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography

Circumpolar Ocean Stability On Mars 3 Billion Years Ago

by Keith CowingOctober 3, 2023October 3, 2023

What was the nature of the Late Hesperian climate? Warm and wet or cold and dry? Formulated this way the question leads to an apparent paradox since both options seem […]

Initial and final atmospheric mass fraction Xatm and final water mole fraction (color bar) after the atmospheric loss through photoevaporation (ε = 0.1) for 4.6 Gyrs. The rocky core is composed of basalt (left panel), CI (middle panel), and EH (right panel). An initial water mass fraction is determined by the empirical relation derived from the giant impact simulations, XW = 8.2 × 10−2X −0.41 atm . The color contour shows the final H2O mole fraction in the remaining atmosphere. -- astro-ph.EP

Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Impact events, Status Report, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography

Evolution of a Water-rich Atmosphere Formed by a Giant Impact on an Earth-sized Planet

by Keith CowingSeptember 28, 2023September 28, 2023

The atmosphere of a terrestrial planet that is replenished with secondary gases should have accumulated hydrogen-rich gas from its protoplanetary disk.

Water cloud horizontal and vertical distributions. Water cloud column (a) in latitude vs longitude coordinates and (b) tidallylocked coordinates (b). Water cloud content vertical distribution (c) as a function of tidally-locked latitude (averaged over all tidallylocked longitudes). The plots were computed for an initially hot and steamy 2 R⊕ planet (with a 10 bar of H2O + 1 bar of N2 atmosphere) synchronously rotating (fixed rotation period of 60 Earth days) around a M3 star, and forced to an ISR of 500 W m−2 (simulation M3-YANG-1). The outputs were averaged over 250 Earth days. For reference, insolation is 340.5 W m−2 on present-day Earth. Wind fields are superimposed on the plots. Winds are plotted at a pressure of ∼ 50 Pa in panels a and b, and averaged over all tidally-locked (TL) longitudes in panel c. -- astro-ph.EP

Astrochemistry, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Habitable Zones, Icy Worlds, Status Report, TRAPPIST-1, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography

Water Condensation Zones Around Main Sequence Stars

by Keith CowingAugust 29, 2023August 29, 2023

Understanding the set of conditions that allow rocky planets to have liquid water on their surface — in the form of lakes, seas or oceans — is a major scientific […]

Artist’s impression, frozen world with sub-surface ocean CREDIT Lujendra Ojha

Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Europa, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Habitable Zones, Press Release, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography

Study Increases The Probability Of Finding Water On Other Worlds By x100

by Keith CowingJuly 11, 2023July 11, 2023

A new analysis shows that there are probably many more Earth-like exoplanets with liquid water than had been thought, significantly increasing the chance of finding life. The work finds that […]

This image, acquired on April 8, 2011, with the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instruments on NASA’s Terra satellite, shows Saharan dust over the Bay of Biscay. A phytoplankton bloom makes the water appear bright green and blue. Sediment is likely contributing to some of the color, especially in coastal areas. Credits: NASA Earth Observatory image by Wanmei Liang, using MODIS data from NASA EOSDIS LANCE and GIBS/Worldview.

Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Desert Worlds, Gaia - Planetary Perspectives, Plant Biology, Press Release, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography

How Desert Dust Nourishes The Growth Of Phytoplankton In Earth’s Oceans

by Keith CowingJuly 10, 2023August 23, 2025

For the past few decades, scientists have been observing natural ocean fertilization events — episodes when plumes of volcanic ash, glacial flour, wildfire soot, and desert dust blow out onto […]

The probability P(L|TI) for TIs corresponding to LBHs as a function of the emergence rate of TIs in LBHs (units of Gyr−1 ). The vertical line is an estimate of the median value of this rate, based on the data from Earth -- astro-ph.EP

Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Intelligence & Language, Origin & Evolution of Life, Status Report, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography

A Bayesian Analysis of Technological Intelligence In Land And Oceans

by Keith CowingJuly 10, 2023July 10, 2023

Current research indicates that (sub)surface ocean worlds essentially devoid of subaerial landmasses (e.g., continents) are common in the Milky Way, and that these worlds could host habitable conditions, thence raising […]

Model transmission spectrum of our canonical Hycean world K2-18 b. The model spectrum with all the molecules included is shown in grey. The spectra with the individual contributions of the different molecular species are shown as denoted in the legend. The synthetic JWST observations corresponding to the full model are shown as the gold-centered black points with error bars binned to a resolution of R= 40. The observations include one transit with NIRISS SOSS, three transits with NIRSpec G395H and two transits with MIRI LRS, as discussed in section 4. -- astro-ph.EP

Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Habitable Zones, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Status Report, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography

Chemical Conditions On Hycean Worlds

by Keith CowingJune 26, 2023June 26, 2023

Traditionally, the search for life on exoplanets has been predominantly focused on rocky exoplanets. Hycean worlds are a class of habitable sub-Neptunes with planet-wide oceans and H2-rich atmospheres. Their broad […]

Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Enceladus, Europa, Exploration Gear & Tech, Missions & Hardware, Press Release, Robotics/Rovers/UAVs, ROVs/Submersibles/Diving, Tricorders & Sensors

Away Team Droids: Exobiology Extant Life Surveyor (EELS)

by Keith CowingMarch 20, 2023March 20, 2023

The EELS system is a mobile instrument platform conceived to explore internal terrain structures, assess habitability and ultimately search for evidence of life. It is designed to be adaptable to […]