Carroll Michael - Alien Seas: Oceans in Space
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In the early days of planetary observation, oceans were thought to exist in all corners of the Solar System. Carbonated seas percolated beneath the clouds of Venus. Features on the Moons surface were given names such as the Bay of Rainbows and the Ocean of Storms. With the advent of modern telescopes and spacecraft exploration these ancient concepts of planetary seas have been replaced by the reality of something even more exotic. Alien Seas serves up the current research, past beliefs, and new theories to offer a rich array of the seas on other worlds. It is organized by location and by the material composing the oceans under discussion, with expert authors penning chapters on their specialty. Each chapter features new original art depicting alien seas, as well as the latest ground-based and spacecraft images. With the contributors as guides, readers can explore the wild seas of Jupiters watery satellite Europa, believed similar in composition to battery acid. Saturns planet-sized moon Titan seems to be subject to methane or ethane rainfall that become vast lakes and, perhaps, seasonal oceans. Titan and Mars have seas of sand, large shifting dunes covering huge plains, while Venus may have oceans of frozen lava. The possibilities are excitingly endless and ripe for exploration. Contributors: Kevin Baines Jeffrey Bennett James Cameron Michael Carroll Mona Delitsky David Grinspoon Rosaly Lopes Christopher P. McKay Karl Mitchell Robert Pappalardo Timothy Parker Jani Radebaugh John Spencer.
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Michael Carroll and Rosaly Lopes (eds.) Alien Seas 2013 Oceans in Space 10.1007/978-1-4614-7473-9_1
Springer Science+Business Media New York 2013
1. Introduction: Oceans on Earth and Elsewhere
Michael Carroll 1
(1)
Littleton, CO, USA
Michael Carroll
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Abstract
Samuel Taylor Coleridges ancient mariner lamented, Water, water, everywhere, nor any drop to drink. Today, it seems that planetary scientists are faced with the same situation. Drinking aside, the prospect of oceanic planets and moons scattered across the cosmos is brighter than ever. During its first 3 years of operation, NASAs planet-hunting Kepler spacecraft tracked down somewhere in the neighborhood of 100 planet candidates that appear to be in the habitable zone around their parent stars. In other words, these planets, or moons circling planets in the case of giant planets, have the capacity to support liquid water on their surfaces.
Samuel Taylor Coleridges ancient mariner lamented, Water, water, everywhere, nor any drop to drink. Today, it seems that planetary scientists are faced with the same situation. Drinking aside, the prospect of oceanic planets and moons scattered across the cosmos is brighter than ever. During its first 3 years of operation, NASAs planet-hunting Kepler spacecraft tracked down somewhere in the neighborhood of 100 planet candidates that appear to be in the habitable zone around their parent stars. In other words, these planets, or moons circling planets in the case of giant planets, have the capacity to support liquid water on their surfaces.
With some 2,300 candidate planets beyond our own solar system, and counting, these pages cannot hope to cover all that cosmic territory. But seas in many forms await our studies within our home planetary system. There are oceans of water beyond the Earth, below the icy crusts of satellites in the outer solar system. Surface oceans probably existed on Mars in the past, and perhaps on Venus as well. Saturns planet-sized moon Titan hosts respectable seas of liquid methane or ethane. Truly alien oceans of liquid metallic hydrogen slosh at the heart of outer planets, while seas of sand cast gritty tides across frozen landscapes of ice and rock in other places.
A Short History
Oceans have played an important role in humanitys story, and its been a tumultuous relationship. Ancient peoples often feared the briny unknown. Many ancients believed that a mysterious, monster-filled ocean surrounded the world. Most ships built in the fertile crescent were not safe on the open seas, as they were designed for travel on rivers or across floodplains. Roman law simply forbade sea travel between November 10 and March 10, as the period was considered too risky. As vessels became more seaworthy and explorers began to venture further into the great oceans, their maps reflected their unease with labels like Thar Be Dragons and Zona Incognita.
Nevertheless, early explorers ventured great distances into the unknown. Asian populations spread through Polynesia and Micronesia. The Vikings set up shop in Iceland and visited several sites in North America. It is possible that many early humans migrated from Siberia to the western hemisphere traveling by small boats, staying close to shore. Some 1,600 years before Christ, the Minoans set sail across the Mediterranean in the largest flotilla of the ancient world, waging war not with weapons but with economics and trade. In fact, ancient Egyptian textstypically disdainful of foreignersassigned the Minoans the respectful label the Sea Peoples.
Though they may at times be terrifying, the Earths oceans are crucial to life and are thought to be where primitive life originated. The oceans have a profound influence on climate, enabling life to exist in some regions, while sometimes causing havoc in others. Oceanic currents transfer heat from the tropics to polar regions, helping to drive our weather. Changes in currents, such as the famous El Nino effect, cause seasonal shifts in wind, rain and temperature patterns globally. Our oceans play a critical role in climate stability and in the carbon cycle, providing an interface between atmosphere and surface.
But what of seas in the sky? What about seas on the orbs floating in those fuzzy telescopic views? Even through the eyepiece, the Moons dark plains looked like bays, ponds and seas. Hence, many are named Maria (sea), Lacus (lake), Palus (marsh), and Sinus (bay). Jules Verne sent his cannon-shell-riding passengers around the far side of the Moon while it was in darkness, conveniently. When meteors briefly lit the landscape below, they got a tantalizing glimpse. Could they see rivers? Forested hillsides? Seas? Nearly a century later, Ray Bradbury gave us his chess-piece civilizations in the Martian Chronicles, where we saw a Mars with wine-colored canals and slumbering fossil seas.
Science Leaps In
Early astronomers added their voices to the literary crowd. The first telescopic observations of Venus frustrated efforts to determine its length of day or the nature of its landscape; what became obvious was that the world was covered in hazes and clouds. Venus is the closest planet to the Earth, and virtually identical in size, leading some observers to guess that the Venusian landscape might be Earthlike: swamp-covered or blanketed in oceans of carbonated water, a planetary Perrier source. Spacecraft laid waste to this Venus version, but have provided some evidence of possible ancient oceans.
While some astronomers looked sunward toward Venus, others cast their gaze outward, in the direction of Mars. Antoniadi, Schiaparelli, and a host of others saw the Martian resemblance to Earth right away. They clocked its days at about 24 h and 40 min. They found a season-producing axial tilt similar to our own, and noted the ebb and flow of its polar ices. Meticulously, observers mapped the wave of darkening spreading across the mysterious web of shapes draping the face of the red planet. Rich Bostonian diplomat Percival Lowell set up his own observatory to study the strange world, crafting intricate, canal-filled maps. Reasoning that Mars apparently straight lines seemed more artificial than natural, Lowell proposed that these dark canals sprang from an artificial source, engineered by what he postulated as a dying, advanced race holding on the last vestiges of long-dead seas. Early observers also guessed that the outer planets might be oceanic, great globes of liquid sloshing under bands of clouds. They were surprisingly close to the truth.
Alien Seas
Alien Seas explores the wonders of distant seas across our solar system. Late-breaking research brings us vistas of seascapes that no one even dreamed of until a few decades ago. Armed with spacecraft data, advanced ground observation tools, and powerful new computer models, researchers are revealing strange, new worlds brimming with truly alien seas.
In our first chapter, NASA astrobiologist David Grinspoon introduces us to the alien seas that may once have lapped against the shores of ancient Venus. In , investigating the hearts of the gas and ice giants, where dense air becomes alien oceans of liquid metallic gases. NASA/Ames astrobiologist Chris McKay takes a look at Earths exotic life, and how it might shed light on the possibilities of life in distant oceans. Finally, astrophysicist Jeffrey Bennett rounds out our cosmic sea inventory by honing in on exoplanets near and far, where familiar seas may lap the shores of moons circling gas giants orbiting close to their suns. Join us as we explore alien seas!
Michael Carroll and Rosaly Lopes (eds.) Alien Seas 2013 Oceans in Space 10.1007/978-1-4614-7473-9_2
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