Astronomers from NASA and the University of Washington have estimated total internal heating rates and depths to possible subsurface oceans for 17 planets that may be cold ocean planets — low-mass exoplanets with surface temperatures and/or densities that are consistent with icy surfaces and substantial water content. Like the icy moons in our outer Solar System, these planets may be astrobiologically significant worlds that harbor habitable environments beneath their icy surfaces.
Ocean planets are a proposed class of low-density, terrestrial exoplanets with substantial liquid water layers.
They may exist in a variety of climactic states including ice free, partially ice covered, or completely frozen over at their surfaces.
“Our analyses predict that these 17 alien worlds may have ice-covered surfaces but receive enough internal heating from the decay of radioactive elements and tidal forces from their host stars to maintain internal oceans,” said Dr. Lynnae Quick, a researcher at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.
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