UNCOVERING INTERSTELLAR OCEANS
NASA shocked the world earlier this year when they announced the discovery of the seven Earth-like exoplanets found in what is now known as the Trappist-1 system. It seems as though the space agency is bent on shocking the world again with an upcoming press conference on “ocean worlds” in our solar system.
The announcement comes in light of data collected by NASA’s Cassini spacecraft during its final mission and the Hubble Telescope and is scheduled for Thursday, April 13th at 2 PM. The conference will cover new results about “ocean worlds” in our solar system and “the search for life beyond Earth.”
NASA’s quest to find life in our solar system has rested on the possibility of interstellar water. Because a majority of our home planet is covered in water and all life (as we know it, as it adheres to known scientific principles) depends on water, it is logical to expect that wherever there is water, extraterrestrial life might not be too far away.
There are several possible “ocean worlds” currently being investigated by NASA. The moons of the gas giants Jupiter and Saturn are prime suspects for the space agency. Of Jupiter’s many moons, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto are all suspected to have oceans underneath their icy crusts, while of Saturn’s moons, it’s suspected that Enceladus, Titan, and Mimas might also hold sub-surface oceans.
It’s exciting to imagine that all this happening in our very own solar system…but what exactly would it mean if we find oceans?
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