Hunt For Habitable Ocean Worlds Beyond Our Solar System

The hunt for habitable ocean worlds outside our solar system has several goals and many different scientific objectives. One of those goals is to search for biosignatures, which could indicate a past or present presence of life on another world. Currently, robotic missions are being considered to look for biosignatures on outer planets. In 2004, NASA formed the Outer Planets Assessment Group to determine scientific priorities and pathways for exploration of the outer solar system.

The group subsequently set up the Roadmaps to Ocean Worlds (ROW) group to lay the groundwork for an ocean worlds mission.

TESS

A proposed space mission, called TESS, could find habitable ocean worlds beyond our solar system. It will use six wide-field cameras to observe stars and look for dips in brightness. This will allow the mission to identify planets that might be transiting. It is hoped that the mission could identify several hundred habitable worlds that could be easily studied.

The TESS satellite has already detected two planets that are almost as big as Earth. The first is GJ 357 b, which is about 22% bigger than Earth. TESS has observed its orbit for a month. It has a mass of 6.1 times Earth's and orbits its star every 55.7 days. It orbits at a distance of about 20% of Earth's distance from the sun.

The second planet discovered by TESS is a super-earth. It was found within the habitable zone of its star. The researchers say this means it's likely that the world is similar to Earth in climate and size. It may even be two times as big as Earth!

Charbonneau's team put the plan into action with the help of Packard Fellowship funds. They installed the last three telescopes in the eight-telescope facility, which they call "MEarth." They have been searching for a habitable world in the Milky Way, and they've already made a discovery. Their findings have been presented at the annual meeting of the American Astronomical Society's Division for Planetary Sciences.

In early 2019, the TESS mission discovered a super-Earth planet. In the future, it may be possible to study its atmosphere with the James Webb Space Telescope or ground-based large telescopes.

Voyager 2

Voyager 2 will continue NASA's quest for habitable ocean worlds beyond our solar-system home. While the Viking program gambled on life on Mars, it had no backup plan. The mission will continue the exploration of ocean worlds, but with a different focus. The mission will be able to gather high-volume samples and cache them on the surface. It will also study the potential paleo-environments of these worlds.

The mission is also important to our understanding of the outer solar system. In order to find habitable worlds beyond our solar system, we need to understand its physics. In the last decade, the Voyager probe has made some impressive discoveries. Its science data have improved our understanding of Saturn's rings. It has also uncovered the existence of pickup ions, neutral atoms from interstellar space that become ionized by solar wind and ultraviolet radiation.

It also has helped us understand how pickup ions enter the solar wind, and how they interact with it.

Recent discoveries made by the Voyager probes have raised the possibility of life on other worlds. Recent missions have confirmed that oceans can exist on other solar system bodies. The Cassini and Huygens Lander missions have already confirmed the existence of oceans on Titan and Europa. This discovery has led scientists to believe that oceans on these worlds may harbor life.

Mars, Enceladus, and Europa are some of the most likely candidates for habitable ocean worlds beyond our solar systems. However, there are other possibilities. Mars was once an ocean world. Today, its atmosphere is vulnerable due to the greenhouse gas effect.

Europa

Europa is Jupiter's second Galilean Moon and may be a habitable ocean world beyond our solar-system boundaries. The moon's icy outer shell is between 15 and 25 kilometers thick and floats on an interior ocean 60 to 150 kilometers deep. The moon's geologic features suggest that liquid water has moved through the shell to reach the surface. It is therefore an area of high interest in the field of astrobiology.

To establish whether Europa could support life, scientists will need to investigate its chemistry. Biological life requires energy to sustain itself, and the presence of liquid water on Europa may provide that energy. If this water has enough oxygen, it could fuel chemical reactions that would release energy and fuel life.

Scientists also need to look at the surface of Europa. The icy crust shows signs of a liquid ocean beneath it, and the Galileo spacecraft has found few craters. Some scientists believe the craters have been erased by geological activity. Another theory is that warmer ice rising from below the surface could have resulted in the destruction of the craters.

Because Europa is far from the sun, it is out of the habitable zone, which is where liquid water can exist on a planet. However, the ocean on Europa was able to form thanks to tidal heating caused by Jupiter's two moons, Io and Ganymede. These moons tug on Europa, creating friction in the ocean's core. This friction in turn creates heat.

The next step for explorers is to send a payload to Europa. This will involve using cryobots to study the ocean. The mission is scheduled to arrive in 2029 and will perform multiple flybys of Europa. It will then enter an orbit around Ganymede in 2032 or 2034, returning valuable data to Earth.

Enceladus

We can't rule out the possibility of water on exoplanets, but it's unlikely that these worlds have atmospheres. Instead, scientists are looking for evidence of liquid water. And that means oceans. A planet's surface temperature is a key indicator of its ocean. But other factors, such as stellar radiation, can also shed light on the existence of a liquid water ocean.

Recent studies have shown that some planets may be habitable if they meet specific conditions. These conditions include size, mass, and temperature. Recently, scientists have developed a new classification for these planets, called "Hycean planets." These planets are 2.6 times larger than Earth, and their atmospheric temperatures are about 392 degrees Fahrenheit. Their oceans could also harbor microbial life.

These studies highlight that the outer portions of the habitable zone may be less habitable than previously thought. This is because the planet's temperature may fluctuate between frozen and non-frozen states. This is called limit-cycling. Furthermore, the planet's mass may be larger than Earth's, which could lead to a more hospitable environment.

Ceres, for example, is believed to have water and volatile compounds.

The Dawn mission also discovered evidence of ice on Ceres. The ice was detected in its global crust and in specific geological features, such as impact ejecta and landslides. Other geological features, like a high albedo region in the Occator crater, suggested the presence of hydrated salts. It is possible that the ice and hydrated salts originated in an early phase of the planet's history and migrated to the outer mantle.

Pluto

Pluto is one of the most intriguing candidates for habitable ocean worlds beyond our solar-system. It has all the ingredients to support life: a liquid ocean, a solid interior, and a layer of carbon-rich chemicals on its surface. However, it's unlikely that Pluto will become our next exploration target. Thankfully, there are other places in the solar-system that share these characteristics and may be easier to reach.

Although the Earth's mass is relatively large, it's likely that there are a few hundred exoplanets that are similar in size to our planet. However, scientists are still far from certain whether the exoplanets we're looking at are habitable. The CHEOPS satellite was launched by the European Space Agency on December 18, 2019. This satellite's primary mission is to study the structure of exoplanets.

It will use an onboard telescope that weighs about 60 kg. It will measure the exoplanet's radius and determine its mass.

Some outer planets may have oceans that cover the entire surface of the planet. Moreover, these oceans may reach greater depths than Earth's oceans. In addition, the climate on these planets may be suitable for Earth-based microbial life. These planets may also be tidally locked with their star, which means that they are less exposed to radiation from their host star.

This would make them more habitable than Earth.

The discoveries from the Mars 2020 mission signal the beginning of a new era in the hunt for habitable worlds beyond our solar system. This new approach merges planetary and ocean science. As a result, the search for habitable ocean worlds beyond our solar system has begun.

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