Under blankets of gas, distant planets might have the right conditions for liquid water.
A diagram showing the layer of helium and hydrogen gases that could allow water to be liquid on unusually distant planets.Somewhere in the universe, there may be rocky worlds perhaps twice as distant from their host stars as Earth is from the sun. So far from their stars’ warmth, these planets should be quite cold—and any water on their surfaces should be frozen.
The new calculations bode well for the potential habitability of these cold super-Earths. Their existence is still theoretical—none have been found yet—so this adds an incentive for astrophysicists to hunt for this exoplanet class as they seek to determine whether we’re alone in the universe.
The trick is keeping that hydrogen gas around long enough for it to build up. It’s a particularly light element, so unless a planet is massive enough and has enough gravity to hold onto the gas, hydrogen will vanish into space. And if the planet is close to its star, the radiation can make those particles escape more quickly. The vast distance between these cold super-Earths and their stars could protect their hydrogen gas from being torn away.
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