Oh the irony. There are most likely water worlds in all places, however they’re lined in ice and can’t be explored

Originally it was believed that liquid water is relatively rare in the solar system. However, one of the most important discoveries of the last decades of planetary research is that liquid water is extremely abundant even outside the orbit of a star that would allow it to be on the surface of a planet or moon. It happens to be covered by an ice sheet. Scientists at the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) have now theorized what the abundance of liquid water means for life across the galaxy and whether it is more abundant than originally thought.

Currently, the best theory for the origin of life underwater begins in geothermal sources that do not require energy directly from the sun. Such a genesis would possibly be possible on ocean worlds that are covered with a layer of ice, since no solar energy is required for the start of life, notes S. Alan Stern, planetary scientist at SwRI.

IWOWs are quite common even in our own garden. This cut-away image of Pluto shows a section through the area of ​​Sputnik Planitia, with dark blue representing an underground ocean and light blue representing the frozen crust.
Artwork by Pam Engebretson, courtesy UC Santa Cruz.

Additionally, the inner aquatic ocean worlds (IWOWs, as Dr. Stern calls them) offer some additional benefits that actually make them more stable places for life to evolve. The ice that covers the world and is usually miles thick would protect any life in the subterranean ocean from potentially catastrophic events such as meteor strikes, solar flares, supernova explosions, or radiation.

Interestingly, Dr. Stern also suggests that life, which develops primarily on IWOWs, would provide an interesting answer to the Fermi Paradox. With modern observational astronomy, it would be practically impossible to discover an alien life in such a world. Fortunately, NASA funded the Ocean Worlds Exploration Program, so at least in the not too distant future we can explore some of the IWOWs in our own backyard like Europa and Enceladus.

UT video about life on Europe.

Dr. Stern notes that it is highly unlikely that we will ever find highly intelligent lives on these worlds. One of the main reasons is the inability to make fire in a water-filled world. Many scientists believe that this is one of the keys to developing higher level intelligence.

Despite all the uncertainties about what evolution might look like in such a world, it is certainly no pointless exercise to ponder the implications of one of the most profound discoveries of the past 25 years. Hopefully the launch of Europa Clipper in 2024 will shed some light on these previously underrated potential homes for their own branch of the Tree of Life.

Learn more:
SwRI – SwRI researchers theorize that worlds with subterranean oceans may be more conducive to life than worlds with surface oceans like Earth
Lunar and Planetary Conference – Some Implications for Life and Civilizations in Relation to the Inner Water Ocean Worlds
UT – It looks like Ceres is an ocean world too

Mission statement:
Cross-section of an IWOW.
Photo credit: NASA / JPL – Caltech / SwRI

Like this:

To like Loading…