Researcher theorizes worlds with underground oceans support, hides life

One of the deepest discoveries in planetary science over the past 25 years is that worlds with oceans under low rock and ice are common in our solar system. Such worlds include the icy satellites of the giant planets, such as Europe, Titan and Enceladus, and distant planets such as Pluto.

In a report presented this week at the 52nd Annual Lunar and Planetary Science Conference (LPSC 52), the Southwestern Research Institute, Planetary Scientist S. Alan Stern, writes that the occurrence of inland waterways (IWOWs) in our solar system suggests that it prevent. also in other galaxies, which greatly expanded the conditions for planetary habitability and biological survival over time.

It has been known for years that worlds like Earth, with oceans lying on their surface, must be within a narrow distance of their stars in order to maintain the temperature that the oceans maintain. However, IWOWs are found over a much greater distance from their stars. This increases the number of habitable worlds that are likely to exist in the galaxy.

Worlds like Earth, with oceans on the outside, are also subject to many life threats, ranging from asteroids and comets, to deadly torchlight torches, to nearby supernova explosions and more. Stern’s newspaper points out that IWOWs are impervious to such threats because their oceans are protected by a roof of ice and rock, typically a number up to ten kilometers thick, that overwhelms their oceans.

“Inland waters are better suited to provide many kinds of environmental stability, and are less likely to suffer life-threatening conditions from their own atmosphere, their star, their solar system and the galaxy, than worlds like Earth that leave their oceans on the outside. , ”Stern said.

He also points out that the same rock and ice layer that protects the oceans on IWOWs also hides life to be observed by virtually all astronomical techniques. If such worlds are the predominant abode in the galaxy and if intelligent life arises in them – both large “axes”, emphasizes Stern, then IWOWs can also help crack the so-called Fermi Paradox. The Fermi Paradox, presented by Nobel Prize winner Enrico Fermi in the early 1960s, questions why we do not see obvious evidence of life as it is common throughout the universe.

“The same protective layer of ice and rock that creates stable living environments also makes life easy to detect,” Stern said.