Ocean swimming... on other planets

2017-11-27

Can you ocean swim on other planets? Perhaps! Water is far more common in the Universe than you might think, and there are many other oceans out there, even on our neighbours in our own solar system. Associate Professor Jonti Horner is an astronomer and astrobiologist who works in the Computational Engineering and Science Research Centre at the University of Southern Queensland. We caught up at the Australian Space Research Conference. It is currently thought that there are oceans deep beneath the surface of some...

Can you ocean swim on other planets? Perhaps! Water is far more common in the Universe than you might think, and there are many other oceans out there, even on our neighbours in our own solar system.

Associate Professor Jonti Horner is an astronomer and astrobiologist who works in the Computational Engineering and Science Research Centre at the University of Southern Queensland. We caught up at the Australian Space Research Conference.

It is currently thought that there are oceans deep beneath the surface of some of Jupiter's and Saturn's moons, as well as astonishingly, on asteroids and Pluto. The Saturnian moon Titan, as well as likely having a subsurface water ocean, may have standing hydrocarbon oceans on its surface. Mars and Venus may have had oceans in the past. And it's almost certain that outside the solar system, there are planets just like Earth with vast water oceans. Could these locations be the home of future extreme sports?

We also chatted about publically funded science, future space missions and the future of Earth.

Songs in this episode - all licensed under a Creative Commons License: