35% of exoplanets 5-10 times bigger than Earth are 50% water which is 2500 times the 0.02% of Earth

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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.

The radii of over 4000 exoplanet candidates have been precisely measured by the NASA Kepler Mission, along with their orbital periods and other parameters. The exoplanets sizes have a bi-modal distribution, with the main and
secondary peaks likely corresponding to Earth-like rocky planets (1.5 times the radius of the Earth) and larger intermediate-sized planets (2.5 times the radius of the earth). The masses of planets can be determined by groundbased spectroscopic observations, but only for planets orbiting the brightest stars. These observations, allow calculations of average densities and, thus, constraining their bulk compositions and internal structures. An important question about the compositions of the planets ranging from 2 to 4 Earth radii (RÅ) still remain. They may either have a rocky core enveloped in a massive H2-He gas (gas dwarfs) or contain a significant amount of multi-component, H2O-dominated ices/fluids (water worlds). The growth model tracks how mass and radius change when a planet population grow from rocky core and subsequently accrete either O-H-C-N-ices or H2-He gas. Because their composition cannot be uniquely constrained, we use growth model and Monte Carlo simulation for these planets to argue that many intermediate-sized planets are “water worlds”.

Aliens will not be coming for Earth’s water

There have been various science fiction stories and movies like Battle: Los Angeles where Aliens attack the Earth and their motivation is to take our 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.

15 thoughts on “35% of exoplanets 5-10 times bigger than Earth are 50% water which is 2500 times the 0.02% of Earth”

  1. 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.

  2. 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.

  3. 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.

  4. 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.”””

  5. 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.

  6. 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.

  9. 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.

  10. 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.

  11. 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.

  13. 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.

  14. 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.

  15. 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.

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