2023-12-26 19:27:27
A team of scientists from NASA discovered 17 planets the size of Earth but less dense, with secret oceans of liquid water beneath its layers of ice that, although they can hide extraterrestrial lifepresent a big difference with our planet..
As explained by the aforementioned North American space agency through a statement, it is exoplanets that could have oceans with water covered by large frozen surfacesand that, occasionally, they could erupt through the ice crust in the form of each other.
“We have estimated the total internal heating rates and the depths of possible underground oceans for 17 planets that can be cold ocean planetslow-mass exoplanets with equilibrium surface temperatures and/or densities that are consistent with icy surfaces and a substantial H2Oh content“explained the scientists in a recent study published in The Astrophysical.
“Just like the icy moons of our outer solar system, cold oceanic planets may be astrobiologically important worlds what harbor habitable environments beneath their icy surfaces”, remarked the authors of this valuable astronomical discovery.
Furthermore, the study maintains that, beyond the fact that the exoplanets discovered are much colder than our planet, since the host stars that orbit them They do not provide the same heat as the Sun to the Earththey are also very promising places to look for chemical signs of life.
“Planets receive internal heat from processes that occur inside themand our analyzes predict that These 17 worlds may have ice-covered surfaces“But they receive enough internal heating due to the decay of radioactive elements and the tidal forces of their host stars to maintain internal oceans,” he explained. Lynnae Quick, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center.
“It is very likely that we will use telescopes to try to observe the cryovolcanic activity that may be in each of these exoplanets that we have just detected. We hope that this type of activity could produce chemical signatures that could indicate life”, concluded the specialist.
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