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Are There Oceans on Other Worlds?

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We Asked a NASA Scientist.

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Yes, Earth is not the only world with an\h
ocean. In fact, ocean worlds appear to be

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fairly common in our galaxy. Water is formed by\h
hydrogen, which was created during the Big Bang,

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and oxygen, created by nuclear reactions in stars.\h
There are huge amounts of water in our universe

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and it's abundant in planetary systems forming\h
around other stars, but mostly in the form of gas.

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When we think about ocean worlds,\h
we're talking about liquid water.

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So, where do we find those worlds? Actually, we don't\h
need to go that far. We have examples in our own\hsolar system.

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We believe that certain icy moons may\h
actually harbor kilometer-thick oceans underneath

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their icy surfaces and we're quite confident\h
that some moons, such as Jupiter's moon Europa,

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or Saturn's moon Enceladus, and maybe some dwarf\h
planets, have liquid oceans.

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Why do we care about ocean worlds? Well, the question of, "Are\hwe alone?" is almost as old as humanity itself.

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And the study of ocean worlds is a quest for\h
that answer. Water is a building block for life.

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So, where there's liquid water, there's potential\h
for life. So stay tuned. Upcoming missions will

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provide a chance to explore whether ocean worlds\h
in our solar system could in fact support life.