China News Service, Beijing, June 22 (Reporter Sun Zifa) Springer Nature "Nature-Communications" recently published a planetary science paper saying that a model study believes that in a water-rich exosystem (generally referring to the solar system) On planets, oceans may contain a large amount of electrolytes, including salts such as sodium chloride.
The study suggests that electrolytes may be transported out of the rocky cores of such planets or affect the potential habitability of these ocean worlds.
According to the paper, the environments of water-rich exoplanets and icy moons hold promise for biological processes.
These planets are formed from rocky cores separated from liquid water by a high-pressure ice crust.
It has been debated whether the ice shell hinders the transport of electrolytes from the rocky core to the liquid ocean.
Using molecular dynamics simulations and thermodynamic models, Jean-Alexis Hernandez, the corresponding author of the paper and the European Synchrotron Light Source in France, and colleagues explored how electrolytes play a role in the ice of these planets. transport between layers and oceans.
They found that salts, such as sodium chloride, can be trapped in high-pressure ice shells and transported through the ice into the ocean.
This, they argue, suggests that the high-pressure ice mantle may not be a chemical barrier between the rocky core and the ocean of liquid water.
In a concurrent review article published in Nature-Communications, colleagues from the University of Washington believe that the study "provides the most convincing argument to date to solve the problem of the habitability of the hydrosphere of a large planet." ( Finish)