Researchers at the Universities of Zurich and Bern, published in the journal Nature Astronomy, estimate that liquid water may exist on planets that are very different from Earth.
Rocky exoplanets wrapped in dense “exotic” atmospheres of hydrogen-helium they may have had water in liquid form for billions of years, possibly living conditions, even if they were detached from their parent star and roamed alone in the cold galaxy. This is the conclusion, for the first time, of a group of Swiss experts on exoplanets, according to whom the criteria for searching for water and life in the universe should be expanded.
Researchers from the Universities of Zurich and Bern, who published the journal in the journal Nature Astronomy, estimate that Liquid water can exist on planets that are very different from Earth. Therefore, the hitherto dominant “geocentric doctrine” as to who are the potentially hospitable planets must be questioned.
Life on Earth is considered to have begun in the seas and the search for liquid water is considered the No. 1 prerequisite when searching for life on other planets. To find water, astronomers and astrobiologists are still searching for Earth-like exoplanets. But -according to the new estimates- Liquid water may also have appeared millions or billions of years ago on planets that bear little resemblance to ours.
This means that even “unloaded” exoplanets far from their stars (cold super-Earths), which have a dense atmosphere very different from Earth today, dominated by hydrogen and helium, instead of oxygen and nitrogen, can they have water in liquid form and in fact it has been preserved even for tens of billions of years. This – at least – was shown by the models and simulations of the Swiss researchers.
When the planets form around a young star, they develop an atmosphere mainly of hydrogen and helium, which they usually lose in the course of their evolution, as it is replaced by heavier gases such as oxygen and nitrogen (this has also happened on Earth). However, it is considered possible that some extraterrestrial planets larger than Earth (super-Earths) may have managed to maintain this primordial atmosphere and, at the same time, have developed liquid water on their surface. This can happen because, under conditions of high atmospheric pressure, hydrogen can behave like a “greenhouse gas”, absorbing heat and trapping it in the atmosphere instead of heat leaking into space. In this way, it is possible to have suitable temperatures for the appearance of liquid water even on a planet with an “exotic” atmosphere away from its parent star or completely detached from it.
But whether such a planet can create conditions that are really suitable for life – at least as we know it on Earth – is another matter. With a very dense atmosphere, which will have a mass at least 100 times greater than the Earth, the pressure on the surface of these exoplanets will be very high, similar to that in the Earth’s oceans.
Check out the news feed and stay up to date with the latest news.
I have over 8 years of experience in the news industry. I have worked for various news websites and have also written for a few news agencies. I mostly cover healthcare news, but I am also interested in other topics such as politics, business, and entertainment. In my free time, I enjoy writing fiction and spending time with my family and friends.
