Heat generated by the gravitational pull of moons formed from massive collisions could extend the lifetimes
of liquid water oceans beneath the surface of large icy worlds in our outer solar system.
Heat generated by the gravitational pull of moons formed from massive collisions could extend the lifetimes
of liquid water oceans beneath the surface of large icy worlds in our outer solar system, according to new NASA research.
The team would like to develop and use even more accurate models of tidal heating and TNO interiors to determine how long tidal heating can extend the lifetime
of a liquid water ocean and how the orbit of a moon evolves as tidal heating dissipates energy.
Not exact matches
Oceans Omega emulsifies the oils to make them
water - soluble, which is
of utmost importance as the ingredients are added to enhanced
waters, ready - to - drink teas,
liquid nutritional shots, add - to -
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When hydrogen and oxygen combine in a planet's atmosphere, they can ignite into a ball
of fire and then leave behind
liquid water oceans that would be good for life
The engineering is even trickier because, unlike the nearly homogeneous
water in earth - based
oceans, the concentration
of ethane and methane can vary dramatically in the Titan
oceans and change the
liquid's density properties.
This heating ought to be weak, but some unknown process seems to be amplifying it, possibly enough to melt a deep
ocean of liquid water on Enceladus, or maybe only enough to form smaller pools
of water within the moon's icy shell.
Because Charon's modern - day surface is mostly
water ice, it makes sense that the 1212 - km - diameter moon once had a subsurface
ocean kept
liquid by heat from the radioactive decay
of elements in its core, as well as by the heat generated from collisions
of smaller bits when the moon first accumulated.
Studies
of hydrogen molecules in the Venusian atmosphere by NASA's Pioneer - Venus probe indicate that the planet once had
liquid water on its surface, perhaps even expansive
oceans.
Under the icy surface
of Saturn's moon Enceladus, a
liquid ocean launches
water plumes through the cracks.
That size means gravity has pulled Ceres into a sphere, with a core
of rock, an icy coating and perhaps an
ocean of liquid water locked between.
Scientists don't want to risk a run - in between Juno and any
of the icy moons, such as Europa, which could conceivably harbor life in its buried
liquid water ocean.
Although its surface is an airless landscape
of cracked ice, all the evidence says that beneath that bleak shell is a
liquid water ocean stretching hundreds
of kilometres down to the rocky mantle below.
Certain tidally stressed moons in the outer solar system, such as Europa and Saturn's moon Enceladus, harbor
oceans of liquid water beneath their icy crusts.
In the 1990s the Galileo space probe collected convincing evidence that Jupiter's large moon Europa has a global
ocean of liquid water beneath its frozen surface.
Enceladus, Europa, Ganymede, Titan, Triton, Pluto, Eris... they may all have, or have had, large
oceans of liquid water trapped beneath a frozen crust.
Astronomers know very little for certain about Ceres, but based on indirect evidence, they speculate that it is a world
of clay and ice, and possibly even has a subsurface
ocean of liquid water, preserved from the very creation
of the solar system.
Schimdt has found evidence that warm
ocean currents and convective forces beneath Europa's frozen shell can cause large blocks
of ice to overturn and melt, bringing vast pockets
of water, sometimes holding as much
liquid as all
of the Great Lakes combined, to within several kilometers
of the moon's icy surface.
And so it was, when I reported on January 21 that fish were found living in an isolated corner
of the
ocean beneath 740 meters
of ice in Antarctica: People asked what this might mean for finding life on distant worlds such as Europa, a moon
of Jupiter that very likely harbors an
ocean of liquid water beneath a crust
of ice.
We think it has a thick
liquid water ocean which is thousands
of time more voluminous than any
water on Enceladus.
A planet with the same fraction
of water as Earth could keep a subsurface
ocean liquid if it was 3.5 times Earth's mass.
She was suggesting that Europa's
ocean was not its only source
of liquid water; the moon also harbored hidden lakes far closer to vital molecules on the surface, perhaps close enough to support miniature habitable ecosystems.
And best
of all, beneath the ice shell resides an
ocean of liquid water some 50 miles deep.
Martian colonies could pack up the spaceship and relocate to Jupiter's moon Europa, where scientists believe a large
ocean of liquid water hides beneath an icy crust.
Along one string
of sites, or «stations,» that stretches from Antarctica to the southern Indian
Ocean, researchers have tracked the conditions of AABW — a layer of profoundly cold water less than 0 °C (it stays liquid because of its salt content, or salinity) that moves through the abyssal ocean, mixing with warmer waters as it circulates around the globe in the Southern Ocean and northward into all three of the major ocean ba
Ocean, researchers have tracked the conditions
of AABW — a layer
of profoundly cold
water less than 0 °C (it stays
liquid because
of its salt content, or salinity) that moves through the abyssal
ocean, mixing with warmer waters as it circulates around the globe in the Southern Ocean and northward into all three of the major ocean ba
ocean, mixing with warmer
waters as it circulates around the globe in the Southern
Ocean and northward into all three of the major ocean ba
Ocean and northward into all three
of the major
ocean ba
ocean basins.
The prime target
of NASA's orbiter is Jupiter's moon Europa, which is thought to have an
ocean of liquid water beneath its icy shell.
If the planets are there, one
of them is about the right distance from the star to sport mild temperatures,
oceans of liquid water, and even life.
Venus may have had a shallow
liquid -
water ocean and habitable surface temperatures for up to 2 billion years
of its early history, according to computer modeling
of the planet's ancient climate by scientists at NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) in New York.
The moon's south pole has strange, warm fractures, and plumes
of liquid water from a subsurface
ocean many believed was impossible in such a small, cold world.
The study, according to Valley, strengthens the theory
of a «cool early Earth,» where temperatures were low enough for
liquid water,
oceans and a hydrosphere not long after the planet's crust congealed from a sea
of molten rock.
Europa's
ocean, with perhaps twice the
water of Earth's
oceans, is believed to have been
liquid since the moon's formation.
Scheduled for launch in May, it will place a seismometer on the surface to probe the interior and perhaps find frozen remnants
of that ancient
ocean, or even
liquid water.
Europa, with its underground
ocean of liquid water, has risen to one
of the top slots on the list
of places to search for potential extraterrestrial life.
Enceladus hosts an
ocean of liquid water beneath its icy surface.
Christophe Sotin
of the University
of Nantes in France and his colleagues have argued that Titan might sustain an underground
ocean of liquid water.
Mission scientists have determined that this stuff is coming from a huge
ocean of liquid water beneath the satellite's shell — and that this
ocean may be capable
of supporting life as we know it.
Enceladus is subject to forces that heat a global
ocean of liquid water under its icy surface, resulting in its famous south polar
water jets which are just visible below the moon's dark, southern limb.
With the help
of the European Huygens lander, it explored the stunningly dynamic atmosphere
of Titan, discovering vast lakes
of liquid methane and uncovering a vast subsurface
ocean of liquid water.
The key long - term stabilizing mechanism that keeps Earth's climate in the habitable range (allowing
liquid water on its surface) is the carbon cycle: it is the journey
of carbon through the atmosphere, the
ocean, the rocks, and the volcanoes
of our planet.
«Cold, salty
waters may offer a refuge for life in extreme environments, as the salts could help keep the
water liquid,» said Fairén, noting that the well - defined boundaries
of the icy lobes suggest the ancient
ocean was briny.
Most
of the
water is in
liquid form, meaning these planets are primarily
ocean!
Scientists announced Thursday that measurements from NASA's Cassini spacecraft detected hydrogen gas, a key energy source for microbial life, in a plume gushing from a vast
liquid water ocean buried beneath the icy shell
of Saturn's moon Enceladus.
Drabek - Maunder says: «Recent discoveries that icy moons in our outer Solar System could host
oceans of liquid water and ingredients for life have sparked exciting possibilities for their habitability.
To go to Enceladus, she added, any lander would need to be very clean as
liquid water is in contact with the moon's icy surface, so contamination
of the subsurface
ocean would be a very real possibility.
Under its ice crust, estimated to be 10 km thick, is an
ocean of liquid water of over 100 km deep.
This constant flexing
of Europa by Jupiter's immense gravity melts its interior in the same way it melts that
of neighboring moon Io, in essence keeping the
water ice layers in the interior
of Europa in a
liquid state that form a global underground
ocean.
What Rhoden's team observed in their study was that during this process, several models predict that Charon's orbit around Pluto could have been highly eccentric, which would have caused severe tides on both celestial bodies, possibly leading to the formation
of underground
oceans of liquid water, similar to those that probably exist inside Europa.
And a «lot
of water» here means hundreds or thousands
of Earth
oceans's worth
of water, completely covering the silicate mantle
of the planets, most likely in hundreds
of km - thick high - pressure
water ice layers, below thick
liquid oceans or high - pressure steam atmospheres.
-LSB-...] with hypotheses including that
of a possible shared atmosphere between Pluto and Charon, to the possible existence
of past
liquid water oceans inside Charon billions
of years ago.
If the craft were to crash on the surface
of a cold moon like Enceladus, the RTGs could easily thaw a path through tens
of kilometers
of ice, and plop down into the
liquid water ocean beneath, though this might take a long time.