Finding a new way to "touch" extraterrestrial life

(NLDO) - American scientists have just found important information to determine the possibility of life on celestial bodies that possess underground oceans under ice.

Writing in the scientific journal Nature Communications, a team from Texas A&M University and the University of Washington presented a new framework to help predict whether icy planets and moons harbor oceans of life beneath their icy shells.

Icy planets and moons may harbor oceans of life beneath their harsh surfaces - AI illustration: Thu Anh

The exploration of icy ocean worlds represents a new frontier in planetary science.

Accordingly, many scientists believe that in addition to warm worlds with life on the surface like Earth, worlds with oceans under ice are also full of potential.

Closer examples include Jupiter's moon Europa or Saturn's Enceladus, places that NASA sees as "promised lands" for alien-hunting missions.

The new research addresses a fundamental question in the field: Under what conditions can liquid water remain stable on these distant icy objects?

By identifying and measuring the cenotectic—the absolute lowest temperature at which liquid remains stable under different pressures and concentrations—the authors provide an important framework for interpreting data from planetary exploration efforts.

Because in places where the pressure is different from Earth's, the chemical composition of the ocean is different from Earth's ocean, the freezing and boiling temperature thresholds... will also be completely different.

In addition, they also studied the stability of liquids under the most extreme conditions known to mankind when studying exoplanets.

"This allows us to fully determine the habitability of cold, deep oceans, as well as the ultimate fate of these oceans once the moons or planets have completely cooled," Dr. Matt Powell-Palm from Texas A&M University told Sci-News.

According to Dr. Baptiste Journaux from the University of Washington, this new research will be very useful for the new era that NASA's Europa Clipper launch in October 2024 opened.

Europa Clipper is a spacecraft that is studying Jupiter's moon Europa. One of its key missions is to search for clues about life on this icy world.

Source: https://nld.com.vn/tim-ra-con-duong-moi-cham-den-su-song-ngoai-hanh-tinh-196250113111745312.htm