A NASA study on exoplanets has indicated that 17 exoplanets could have oceans of liquid water, an essential ingredient for life, beneath icy shells, the agency said.
Exoplanets are worlds outside our solar system. Water from these oceans could occasionally erupt through the ice crust as geysers, according to NASA.
The science team calculated the amount of geyser activity on these exoplanets, the first time these estimates have been made. They identified two exoplanets sufficiently close where signs of these eruptions could be observed with telescopes.
“Our analyses predict that these 17 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 Lynnae Quick of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.
“Thanks to the amount of internal heating they experience, all planets in our study could also exhibit cryovolcanic eruptions in the form of geyser-like plumes,” Quick said.
