ASTROOCEANOGRAPHY – FOLLOW THE WATER to EXTRATERRESTRIAL LIFE

Astrooceanography is a very new field of science, that, as the name says, explores the oceans on other worlds. NASA has created the Water worlds program, which does exactly that. If you are in any way interested in Space exploration, extraterrestrial life, oceanography or anything aquatic, you might want to take a look at this new field of discovery. We know that several moons and planets inside our own solar system have water on them. It might be in form of underground ice, at the polar caps, or as a frozen surface blanket with a liquid ocean several miles below. As well as knowing about the existence of water at several places in our solar system we also have detected water molecules far out in space. Hubble and other telescopes have shown us that water molecules exist in other galaxies, nebulas and Exo planets. And where there is water, there is most likely life. In order to explore all those possibilities, NASA has created several programs. NASA’s water world program, the ocean world exploration program (OWEP), the network for ocean worlds (NOW), and several others. Some of those programs work in cooperation or as grants with different universities around the country.

One of the goals is to actually send a mini submarine to one of the moons and have it explore the ocean there. The development is well underway. There are also several other ideas under consideration, as on how to explore those watery worlds. One of those ideas, is to send a small probe to the surface of one of the moons, and have it melt itself, powered by a small nuclear reactor, through the ice layer from the surface, all the way down to the liquid ocean below. This is just an overview about all the programs, technologies and exploration that is planned for the not too distance future. We will get into details along the way in later articles. As technology advances rapidly, with every new telescope we are sending into space, we will discover more and more details about water on other worlds. This series of articles will stay well on top of it and follow the adventure closely.

So, if you enjoyed this introduction, please come back often to check on the news and updates. Astrooceanography will rapidly become the most important field of space exploration, because remember: Where there is water, there is life