It ’s not entirely readable yet how Earth get its ocean , although it ’s likely that it was a mixture of cometic wallop and piss effusing from the planet ’s hellish depths several billion year ago . A Modern newspaper publisher posted to the preprint serverarXivhas suggested that , on other world , ocean may come along in an even more dramatic mode .
As first spotted byNew Scientist , this hypothesis – courtesy of a squad of researcher at the German Aerospace Center ( DLR ) – focuses on world whose atmospheres are deep in hydrogen and oxygen .
When taking the grade of free gasoline molecules , they can becomequite explosiveif ignited by a sudden burst of energy ; say , a bolt of lightning . This response releases a lot of thermic energy , and the surrounding air flesh out rapidly . At the same time , it bring out a quantity of water – the solution of atomic number 1 and oxygen combining .
The Berlin - based squad was peculiar as to what proportions and amounts of atmospheric oxygen and atomic number 1 were required to trigger such a paroxysm . Could there be a world out there whose aura feature significant water supply - form blasts like this , and if so , how much water could they raise ?
Sure , Earth ’s ambience contains a fair act of oxygen , but there ’s nowhere near enough H to cause a violent explosion every individual fourth dimension there ’s a thunderstorm . The squad ’s calculations intimate that so - called Super - Earths – rocky worlds whose mass greatly exceeds that of our own , but remains below that of ice giants like Neptune – are good candidate .
Specifically , those that orbit pre - main sequencered dwarf starsare suspect of sometimes having big amounts of free oxygen produced when it ’s branch from water molecules via high - energy interaction in the atmosphere .
Despite atomic number 1 ’s ability to escape most planets due to its abject molecular weight , Super - land are also likely to be relatively full-bodied in liberal hydrogen too if their gravitative fields can attract enough from the gaseous issue floating within the same planetary system .
When these gases amass , and the atmosphere attain the thrilling - sounding “ combustion - explosion boundary ” , a lightning bang , or even some everyday cosmic ray bombardment , it can cause the spark that creates pee at , well , lightning speeds – along with “ lowly amount ” of hydrogen peroxide .
The team ’s study conclude that large amounts of H2and O2can react in this way to form “ up to about 10 Earth ocean ” on these Super - Earths .
“ The water output would be instant – of the order of second or less , ” lead writer Dr John Lee Grenfell , of the DLR , told IFLScience .
One major caveat though is that this oxygen broadly go forth from pre - existing water in the first billet , which means that instead of novel ocean being created , you ’re essentially reuse sure-enough ones . Grenfell points out , though , that “ if the oxygen comes from other source – for example from carbon dioxide being split by lightness – then the result is no … you do n’t need water to mould water . ”
In any case , “ the explosion mechanics is still a way to slow down water loss on the satellite , so that ’s dear for life . ”
The team ’s study also notes that , as O can accumulate via photochemical reactions without the pauperization for photosynthetic life , their work “ has of import rebound for interpreting O2gas as a biosignature . ”
In case you ’re wondering , this is n’t the only over - the - top weather condition out there in the cosmos .
Saturn’sTitan , for lesson , has a methane - drive clime whose winding blow over electrified sand dunes . Io has planetwide sulfurous snow every clip in pace into Jupiter ’s shadower , and the nose candy onMarsappears almost out of nowhere . Some exoplanets are so superheated by their host stars that itrains pebblesand boulders on ocean of lava .
Sure , Earth hasbomb cyclones – but compared to the rest of the galaxy , our meteorology ’s a bit meh , really .
