Could ocean worlds in the outer solar system have boiling water underneath their icy crusts? This is what a recent study published in Nature Astronomy hopes to address as a team of scientists investigated the geochemical processes that could be occurring on ocean worlds orbiting in the outer solar system. This study has the potential to help scientists better understand the conditions on ocean worlds throughout the solar system and where we can best search for life beyond Earth.
For the study, the researchers examined several icy moons orbiting Saturn and Uranus and what could happen as the ice shell on these moons becomes thinner over time. Specifically, they explored changes to the interior oceans beneath the icy shells, as some icy moons currently have oceans while others have evidence of past oceans that have since completely frozen over or escaped to space as water vapor.
In the end, the researchers identified different outcomes depending on the size of the moons. For example, if the ice shells on smaller moons like Saturn’s Mimas and Enceladus and Uranus’ Miranda become thinner, this could cause underlying oceans to boil from the decrease in pressure. However, if the ice shells on larger moons like Saturn’s Iapetus and Uranus’ Titania become thinner, this could lead to the ice shell collapsing, resulting in a type of plate tectonics.
“Not all of these satellites are known to have oceans, but we know that some do,” said Dr. Max Rudolph, who is an associate professor of earth and planetary sciences at UC Davis and lead author on the study. “We’re interested in the processes that shape their evolution over millions of years, and this allows us to think about what the surface expression of an ocean world would be.”
What new insight into ocean worlds and their potential boiling seas will researchers make in the coming years and decades? Only time will tell, and this is why we science!
As always, keep doing science & keep looking up!
Sources: Nature Astronomy, ScienceDaily
Featured Image: Saturn's moon, Mimas. (Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / Space Science Institute)
