Space remains to be a mystery to scientists even after years of exploratory research. Millions of dollars have been spent looking for signs of life in outer space. Now scientists believe that there may be a chance for life on exomoons, due to the thawing of these icy satellites. The idea is that when the stars that show sunlike features go off from their hydrogen-burning phase, they would essentially cause a thawing out of their solar system and this is when an opportunity for the resurgence of living organisms would present itself.
Frozen rocky planets, as well as their existing icy moons, might be able to thaw enough to allow liquid water to survive on their surface. If this happens, the pre-existing sub-surface life that may have been trapped by the layer of surface ice would be exposed. Perhaps, with the difference in their living conditions, life could flourish in the next hundred years or so.
In a study that appeared in The Astrophysical Journal, research astronomers from the Cornell University, along with their co-authors Lisa Kaltenegger and Thea Kozakis, noted that the increase in the luminosity of the Red Giant will cause the habitable zone of the planet to shift outwards, allowing it to move past its original line of frost. This action would then cause the melting of the ice in the icy planets and their moons to reveal what could be considered as subsurface life.
"New life would be impossible to arise with the thawing of the moon, but the life that may have been hidden from view because of the thick surface ice that covers it could then be exposed," authors of the study said. Once the said life forms are once again exposed, it may be able to react with the atmosphere and may potentially reveal observable biosignatures.
"The paper was also able to unveil that stars that measure 2 to 23 solar masses are the ones that can likely go through a smooth transition from being stable after its helium-burning phase," says Kozakis.
This new discovery helps scientists make sense of what is happening in the atmosphere. To answer emerging questions regarding the possibility of life and survival in different planets and moons, more research and continuous explorations are needed. The results of this study already reveal so much of what could happen to the stars.
Kozakis reveals that their next step is to look into the information and try to study the chemical composition, as well as the temperature of these planetary atmospheres from where the current paper has been modeled. In time, more will be known about life that may exist on these exomoons.
