About 35% of all known exoplanets which are bigger than Earth should be water-rich. These water worlds likely formed in similar ways to the giant planet cores Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune in our own solar system. The newly-launched TESS mission will find many more of them, with the help of ground-based spectroscopic follow-up. The next generation space telescope, the James Webb Space Telescope, will hopefully characterize the atmosphere of some of them.
Many of the known exoplanets may contain as much as 50% water. This is much more than the Earth’s 0.02% (by weight) water content.
Their surface temperature is expected to be in the 200 to 500 degree Celsius range. Their surface may be shrouded in a water-vapor-dominated atmosphere, with a liquid water layer underneath. Moving deeper, one would expect to find this water transforms into high-pressure ices before we reaching the solid rocky core.
Aliens will not be coming for Earth’s water
Solar system is full of water moons
The five icy moons of Jupiter and Saturn show strong evidence of oceans beneath their surfaces: Ganymede, Europa and Callisto at Jupiter, and Enceladus and Titan at Saturn. The Asteroid Ceres has a water ocean under ice.
Brian Wang is a Futurist Thought Leader and a popular Science blogger with 1 million readers per month. His blog Nextbigfuture.com is ranked #1 Science News Blog. It covers many disruptive technology and trends including Space, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Medicine, Anti-aging Biotechnology, and Nanotechnology.
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I’ve always thought the alien water theft meme was absurd, considering how much ice is available in the outer solar system. It’s a result of Californians writing screenplays. They’re obsessed with taking other people’s water, just ask Colorado.
I’ve always thought the alien water theft meme was absurd considering how much ice is available in the outer solar system. It’s a result of Californians writing screenplays. They’re obsessed with taking other people’s water just ask Colorado.
That was always a bit of censorship on the SF writers’ part. It was our women* that they want. The most desirable thing on the planet. *Due to cultural misunderstanding and biological differences, most aliens have a definition of “women” that includes any very drunken person out alone at night, and individual socks in a washing machine. These are what are mostly abducted these days.
That was always a bit of censorship on the SF writers’ part.It was our women* that they want. The most desirable thing on the planet.*Due to cultural misunderstanding and biological differences most aliens have a definition of women”” that includes any very drunken person out alone at night”””” and individual socks in a washing machine. These are what are mostly abducted these days.”””
Items only shrink so far, when in the dryer, then they vanish. Drunks? Same thing. They can only get so dry, then, poof, they are gone. Now my box cutters, battery head lanterns, measuring tapes, and pencils…I think it must be Ninja Tanukis.
Items only shrink so far when in the dryer then they vanish. Drunks? Same thing. They can only get so dry then poof they are gone.Now my box cutters battery head lanterns measuring tapes and pencils…I think it must be Ninja Tanukis.
Never heard of a Tanuki before. I guess they are aliens too.
Never heard of a Tanuki before. I guess they are aliens too.
It’s not conducive to anything like life as we know it. Especially something that might build some technology. I’ve suspected for some time that the size parameters for an Earth-like planet might be very tight indeed. Certainly Mars is too small and I’ve seen conjectures that even twice Earth’s mass might be too much to allow the atmosphere to develop into something like what we have. As I recall it may have had something to do with them not being able to lose enough hydrogen to space? And then there is the water, even a bit more and we wouldn’t have enough land to support development of higher land forms, a bit less and we wouldn’t get enough rain. It really might take a perfect storm to create a planet that can support a technologically developed life form, and that’s just the first step.
It’s not conducive to anything like life as we know it. Especially something that might build some technology. I’ve suspected for some time that the size parameters for an Earth-like planet might be very tight indeed. Certainly Mars is too small and I’ve seen conjectures that even twice Earth’s mass might be too much to allow the atmosphere to develop into something like what we have. As I recall it may have had something to do with them not being able to lose enough hydrogen to space? And then there is the water even a bit more and we wouldn’t have enough land to support development of higher land forms a bit less and we wouldn’t get enough rain. It really might take a perfect storm to create a planet that can support a technologically developed life form and that’s just the first step.
It’s not conducive to anything like life as we know it. Especially something that might build some technology. I’ve suspected for some time that the size parameters for an Earth-like planet might be very tight indeed. Certainly Mars is too small and I’ve seen conjectures that even twice Earth’s mass might be too much to allow the atmosphere to develop into something like what we have. As I recall it may have had something to do with them not being able to lose enough hydrogen to space? And then there is the water, even a bit more and we wouldn’t have enough land to support development of higher land forms, a bit less and we wouldn’t get enough rain. It really might take a perfect storm to create a planet that can support a technologically developed life form, and that’s just the first step.
Never heard of a Tanuki before. I guess they are aliens too.
Items only shrink so far, when in the dryer, then they vanish. Drunks? Same thing. They can only get so dry, then, poof, they are gone.
Now my box cutters, battery head lanterns, measuring tapes, and pencils…I think it must be Ninja Tanukis.
That was always a bit of censorship on the SF writers’ part.
It was our women* that they want. The most desirable thing on the planet.
*Due to cultural misunderstanding and biological differences, most aliens have a definition of “women” that includes any very drunken person out alone at night, and individual socks in a washing machine. These are what are mostly abducted these days.
I’ve always thought the alien water theft meme was absurd, considering how much ice is available in the outer solar system. It’s a result of Californians writing screenplays. They’re obsessed with taking other people’s water, just ask Colorado.