Watery ‘Super Earths’ may hide ‘unfathomably deep’ BOTTOMLESS oceans – with alien life lurking inside
The alien oceans could be “hundreds or thousands of kilometres” deep
THOUSANDS of planets outside of the Solar System have enormous oceans that could even harbour alien life.
A new theory suggests that these far away planets, which are two to four times the size of Earth, are likely to be watery worlds with oceans so deep they're basically bottomless.
Water worlds, also referred to as ocean planets, are types of planets that have substantial amounts of water alongside terrestrial areas like rock or land.
Earth is the only known planet in the Solar System with enough water to support life but a new study has found exoplanets, meaning a planet which is outside of the Solar System, that could potentially have life in their oceans.
Harvard researcher Li Zeng said that these alien oceans could be “hundreds or thousands of kilometres” in depth, .
He went on to describe them as "unfathomable", "bottomless" and "very deep".
The research involved creating complex computer models to analyse data collected by the Kepler Space Telescope and the European Space Agency’s space telescope, Gaia.
Results indicated that these exoplanets may be 50% water, meaning they have much more water than Earth.
Water only accounts for 0.02% of Earth's mass.
Nasa has previously noted that wherever there is water on Earth there is life so this is why scientists get excited by the prospect of water on other planets.
This water planet research has been in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
TOP STORIES IN SCIENCE
In other Space news, a strange star hidden in the Milky Way could be an intruder from a dwarf galaxy that was once 'swallowed' by our own.
An ‘alien’ grain of dust fired at Earth by ancient exploding star has been found buried in Antarctica.
And, the US Navy recently admitted that it had recorded "multiple" UFO sightings over top secret military bases.
Are you impressed by the amount of watery planets out there? Let us know in the comments!
We pay for your stories! Do you have a story for The Sun Online news team? Email us at tips@the-sun.co.uk or call 0207 782 4368 . We pay for videos too. Click here to upload yours.
