Water in the Universe

249 Pages·2011·12.67 MB·English

by  Arnold Hanslmeier (auth.)

Water in the Universe
Astrophysics and Space Science Library
EDITORIALBOARD
Chairman
W.B.BURTON,NationalRadioAstronomyObservatory,Charlottesville,VA,USA
[email protected]
UniversityofLeiden,Leiden,TheNetherlands
[email protected]
F.BERTOLA,UniversityofPadua,Padua,Italy
J.P.CASSINELLI,UniversityofWisconsin,Madison,USA
C.J.CESARSKY,CommissionforAtomicEnergy,Saclay,France
P.EHRENFREUND,UniversityofLeiden,Leiden,TheNetherlands
O.ENGVOLD,UniversityofOslo,Oslo,Norway
A.HECK,StrasbourgAstronomicalObservatory,Strasbourg,France
E.P.J.VANDENHEUVEL,UniversityofAmsterdam,Amsterdam,TheNetherlands
V.M.KASPI,McGillUniversity,Montreal,Canada
J.M.E.KUIJPERS,UniversityofNijmegen,Nijmegen,TheNetherlands
H.VANDERLAAN,UniversityofUtrecht,Utrecht,TheNetherlands
P.G.MURDIN,InstituteofAstronomy,Cambridge,UK
F.PACINI,IstitutoAstronomiaArcetri,Firenze,Italy
V.RADHAKRISHNAN,RamanResearchInstitute,Bangalore,India
B.V.SOMOV,AstronomicalInstitute,MoscowStateUniversity,Moscow,Russia
R.A.SUNYAEV,SpaceResearchInstitute,Moscow,Russia
Forothertitlespublishedinthisseries,goto
www.springer.com/series/5664
Arnold Hanslmeier
Water in the Universe
Prof.Dr.ArnoldHanslmeier
InstitutfürGeophysik,
AstrophysikundMeteorologie
UniversitätGraz
Universitätsplatz5
8010Graz
Austria
[email protected]
ISSN0067-0057
ISBN978-90-481-9983-9 e-ISBN978-90-481-9984-6
DOI10.1007/978-90-481-9984-6
SpringerDordrechtHeidelbergLondonNewYork
LibraryofCongressControlNumber:2010937475
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Cover illustration: Water Claimed in Evaporating Planet HD 209458b. Illustration Credit: European
SpaceAgency,AlfredVidal-Madjar(Institutd’AstrophysiquedeParis,CNRS),NASA
Coverdesign:eStudioCalamarS.L.
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Preface
Water is one of the basic elements for life. It is even assumed that the evolution
oflifeisonlypossibleifthereisliquidwaterpresent.Awatermoleculehassome
remarkablepropertiesthatmakeitquiteuniqueintheuniverse.Inthefirstchapter
ofthisbookwewillreviewthesebasicpropertiesofwaterandtheroleofwateron
Earth.Allancientcivilizationsrealizedtheimportanceofwaterandtheircitieswere
constructedneargreatreservoirsofwater.ButiswateruniqueonEarth?Dowefind
water elsewhere in the solar system, on extrasolar planetary systems or in distant
galaxies? We will start the search for the presence of extraterrestrial water in our
solarsystem.Surprisinglyenoughitseemsthatwaterinsomeformandsometimes
in only minute quantities is found on any object in the solar system. Even on the
planetnearesttotheSun,Mercury,theremaybesomewaterintheformoficenear
itspoleswhereneverthelightofSunheatsthesurface.Andthereareobjectsinthe
solar system that are made up of a large quantity of water in terms of their mass,
likecometsandseveralsatellitesofthegiantplanets.
Iflifedependsonthepresenceofliquidwater,therearealsoplacesbesidesEarth
whereliquidwatermaybefound:beneaththeicecrustofseveralsatellitesofJupiter
andSaturntheremightbehiddenaliquidocean.Suchanicecrustprovidesashield-
ingagainsthighenergeticradiation.
Now,sincethefirstextrasolarplanetarysystemshavebeendetected,thesearch
forwateronsuchobjectshasjuststarted.Becausefromobservationsitisverydif-
ficult to measure the spectroscopic signatures of the atmospheres of such planets,
wehavetowaitforthenewlyplannedobservationalfacilities(bothinspaceandon
ground);someofthemwillbeinoperationverysoon.
Waterhasbeendetectedalmosteverywhereonextremeandexoticplacesinthe
universe: in 5000 K hot sunspots as well as in cold molecular interstellar clouds.
ExtremebrightsourcescanbeexplainedbyaMASERmechanismthatisbasedon
watermolecules.Theyindicateregionswherestarsareformedandtheycanbeeven
detectedingalaxiesthatareatadistanceofseveral100millionlightyears.
Water,whichconsistsofhydrogenandoxygen,wasformedafterthefirstgener-
ationofluminousstarsexploded,soitwasnotpresentduringthefirstseveral100
millionyearsofthehistoryofouruniverse.Thiswillbereviewedinthelastchapter.
v
vi Preface
Thebookisintendedforthereaderinterestedinastrophysics,astrobiologyand
scienceingeneral.Itprovidesanoverviewbutsincemorethan350papersarecited,
thereaderwhowantstogodeepercanusethesereferences.Itcanalsobeusedasa
textbookonseveraltopicsrelatedtoastrobiology.
I want to thank Mr. Ramon Khanna and Mr. Donatas Akmanavicˇius from
Springerfortheirexcellentcooperation.TheNASAADSprovidesawonderfultool
for searching literature and some introductory remarks are based on information
found in the WIKIPEDIA—I want to thank the many unknown authors who con-
tributetothatencyclopedia.
IamalsogratefultoDr.RomanBrasjaandProf.ArnoldBenzforhelpfulcom-
ments.
Finally, I want to thank my children Roland, Christina and Alina and my girl-
friendAnitafortheirunderstandingofmyscientificpassion.
Graz,Austria ArnoldHanslmeier
Contents
1 WateronEarth,PropertiesofWater . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.1 TheRoleofWaterinHistory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.1.1 WaterinAncientCultures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.1.2 ModernSocietyandWater . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
1.2 TheChemicalElementsWaterConsistsof . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
1.2.1 Hydrogen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
1.2.2 Oxygen. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
1.3 Water,ChemicalandPhysicalProperties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
1.3.1 ChemicalProperties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
1.3.2 PhysicalPropertiesofWater . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
1.3.3 EvaporationandCondensation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
1.3.4 Ice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
+
1.3.5 H O . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
2
1.4 ChemicalReactionsandWater . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
1.4.1 ChemicalBonds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
1.4.2 AcidsandpHValue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
1.4.3 Hydrates,WaterinCrystals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
1.4.4 Water:SpectralSignatures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
1.5 TheHydrologicCycle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
1.5.1 EvaporationandPrecipitationBalance . . . . . . . . . . . 22
1.5.2 TheHydrologicCycleandClimateChange . . . . . . . . . 24
2 LifeandWater . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
2.1 LifeandEnvironment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
2.1.1 TheImportanceofWater . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
2.1.2 DefinitionofLife . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
2.1.3 EvolutionofLife. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
2.1.4 LifeUnderExtremeConditions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
2.2 WaterandOtherSolvents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
2.2.1 TheImportanceofSolventstoLife . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
2.2.2 OtherSolventsthanWater . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
2.3 EnergyforLife. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
vii
viii Contents
2.3.1 Energy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
2.3.2 MetabolicDiversity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
2.3.3 SolarEnergy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
2.3.4 PhotosynthesisandRespiration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
3 WateronPlanetsandDwarfPlanets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
3.1 ClassificationofObjectsintheSolarSystem . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
3.1.1 Overview. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
3.1.2 PhysicalParametersofPlanets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
3.2 TerrestrialPlanets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
3.2.1 Earth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
3.2.2 Mercury . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
3.2.3 Venus. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
3.2.4 Mars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
3.2.5 TheEarlySunandEvolutionofTerrestrialPlanets . . . . . 47
3.2.6 DryVenus–HumidEarth–ClimateChangesonMars . . . . 49
3.3 GiantPlanets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
3.3.1 Jupiter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
3.3.2 Saturn . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
3.3.3 Uranus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
3.3.4 Neptune . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
3.3.5 WateronGiantPlanets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
3.4 DwarfPlanets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
3.4.1 Pluto . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
3.4.2 IcesonOtherDwarfPlanets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
4 SatellitesofPlanetsintheSolarSystem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
4.1 GalileanSatellites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
4.1.1 Io . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
4.1.2 Europa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
4.1.3 Callisto . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
4.1.4 Ganymede . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
4.2 SatellitesofSaturn . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
4.2.1 Overview. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
4.2.2 Titan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
4.2.3 OtherSatellitesofSaturn . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
4.3 SatellitesofUranusandNeptune . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
4.3.1 TheSatellitesofUranus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
4.3.2 TheSatellitesofNeptune . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
4.4 TheEarthMoon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
4.4.1 WaterontheMoon? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
5 WateronSmallSolarSystemBodies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
5.1 CloudsofParticles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
5.1.1 TheKuiperBelt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
5.1.2 TheOortCloud . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
Contents ix
5.2 Comets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
5.2.1 EarlyObservations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
5.2.2 OrbitalCharacteristicsofComets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
5.2.3 PhysicsofComets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
5.2.4 CollisionswithComets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
5.2.5 DetectionofWateronComets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
5.3 Asteroids . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
5.3.1 GeneralProperties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
5.3.2 ClassificationofAsteroids . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
5.3.3 NEOs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
5.3.4 TheCretaceous-TertiaryImpact . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
5.3.5 WaterandIceonAsteroids . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
5.3.6 AsteroidsasaSourceforWateronEarth . . . . . . . . . . 124
5.4 Meteorites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
5.4.1 GeneralProperties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
5.4.2 Classification. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
5.4.3 WaterinMeteorites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
6 WateronExtrasolarPlanets? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
6.1 HowtoDetectExtrasolarPlanets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
6.1.1 DetectionMethods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
6.1.2 ExtrasolarPlanetsFoundbyDifferentDetectionMethods . 132
6.1.3 SomeExamplesofExtrasolarPlanets . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
6.2 HabitableZones . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
6.2.1 Habitability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
6.2.2 CircumstellarHabitableZones . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
6.2.3 GalacticHabitableZone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
6.2.4 HabitableZoneAroundGiantPlanets . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
6.3 DustDebrisAroundStars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
6.3.1 SignaturesofDustAroundStars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
6.3.2 DustAroundVega . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
6.4 WaterDetectiononExtrasolarPlanets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
6.4.1 DetectionofPlanetaryAtmospheres . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
6.4.2 HotJupiters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
6.4.3 WateronExtrasolarPlanets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146
6.4.4 SomeModelCalculations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146
6.4.5 SuperEarthPlanets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150
7 WaterinInterstellarSpaceandStars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
7.1 InterstellarMedium . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
7.1.1 PhysicalProperties. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
7.1.2 MoleculesintheInterstellarMedium . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
7.1.3 InterstellarDustLifecycle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
7.1.4 WaterMasers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158
7.2 WaterinStarformingRegions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160