Planetary oceanography

This article needs to be updated. The reason given is: Missing more recent information on Mimas's proposed ocean and the possibility of Dione's ocean. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information. (March 2024)

Planetary oceanography, also called astro-oceanography or exo-oceanography,^[1] is the study of oceans on planets and moons other than Earth. Unlike other planetary sciences like astrobiology, astrochemistry, and planetary geology, it only began after the discovery of underground oceans in Saturn's moon Titan^[2] and Jupiter's moon Europa.^[3] This field remains speculative until further missions reach the oceans beneath the rock or ice layer of the moons. There are many theories about oceans or even ocean worlds of celestial bodies in the Solar System, from oceans made of liquid carbon with floating diamonds in Neptune to a gigantic ocean of liquid hydrogen that may exist underneath Jupiter's surface.^[4]

Early in their geologic histories, Mars and Venus are theorized to have had large water oceans. The Mars ocean hypothesis suggests that nearly a third of the surface of Mars was once covered by water, and a runaway greenhouse effect may have boiled away the global ocean of Venus. Compounds such as salts and ammonia, when dissolved in water, will lower water's freezing point, so that water might exist in large quantities in extraterrestrial environments as brine, or convecting ice. Unconfirmed oceans are speculated to exist beneath the surfaces of many dwarf planets and natural satellites; notably, the ocean of the moon Europa is estimated to have over twice the water volume of Earth's. The Solar System's giant planets are also thought to have liquid atmospheric layers of yet-to-be-confirmed compositions. Oceans may also exist on exoplanets and exomoons, including surface oceans of liquid water within a circumstellar habitable zone. Ocean planets are a hypothetical type of planet with a surface completely covered with liquid.^[5][6]

Extraterrestrial oceans may be composed of water, or other elements and compounds. The only confirmed large, stable bodies of extraterrestrial surface liquids are the lakes of Titan, which are made of hydrocarbons instead of water. However, there is strong evidence for the existence of subsurface water oceans elsewhere in the Solar System. The best-established candidates for subsurface water oceans in the Solar System are Jupiter's moons Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto, and Saturn's moons Enceladus and Titan.^[7]

Although Earth is the only known planet with large stable bodies of liquid water on its surface, and the only such planet in the Solar System, other celestial bodies are thought to have large oceans.^[8] In June 2020, NASA scientists reported that it is likely that exoplanets with oceans may be common in the Milky Way galaxy, based on mathematical modeling studies.^[9][10]

The inner structure of gas giants remain poorly understood. Scientists suspect that, under extreme pressure, hydrogen would act as a supercritical fluid, hence the likelihood of oceans of liquid hydrogen deep in the interior of gas giants like Jupiter.^[11][12] Oceans of liquid carbon have been hypothesized to exist on ice giants, notably Neptune and Uranus.^[13][14] Magma oceans exist during periods of accretion on any planet and some natural satellites when the planet or natural satellite is completely or partly molten.^[15]