Water Worlds

Do you remember the movie Waterworld? It came out in 1995.

In a future where the polar ice-caps have melted and Earth is almost entirely submerged, a mutated mariner fights starvation and outlaw "smokers," and reluctantly helps a woman and a young girl try to find dry land. (source)

His mutation? Gills and webbed feet. Evolution happens—maybe he was born that way.

Essentially, it's Mad Max with the opposite problem: too much water instead of a barren Earth. (source)

The critics were absolute savages. Yes, the flick was flawed BUT it was damned entertaining. What brings this up today?

Scientists say we should look for three key ingredients that make life possible: liquid water, chemistry, and energy. I came across an article (from 2022) on NASA’s site about a couple interesting planets.

A team led by researchers at the University of Montreal has found evidence that two exoplanets orbiting a red dwarf star are "water worlds," where water makes up a large fraction of the entire planet. (source) 

The two planets are in the Kepler-138 planetary system. Kepler-138 is a red dwarf star (not to be confused with Red Dwarf the British teevee series) which is about 218 light-years from us. I only mention it but, if anyone wants to go find out if Kepler-138 c and Kepler-138 d are in fact water worlds, they better pack a lot of snacks and a few changes of underwear.

Closer to home, Saturn’s moon Titan.

This mammoth moon is the only moon in the solar system with a dense atmosphere, and it’s the only world besides Earth that has standing bodies of liquid, including rivers, lakes and seas, on its surface. Like Earth, Titan’s atmosphere is primarily nitrogen, plus a small amount of methane. It is the sole other place in the solar system known to have an earthlike cycle of liquids raining from clouds, flowing across its surface, filling lakes and seas, and evaporating back into the sky (akin to Earth’s water cycle). Titan is also thought to have a subsurface ocean of water. (source)

There’s Jupiter’s moon Ganymede:

NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has found the best evidence yet for an underground saltwater ocean on Ganymede. The ocean is thought to have more water than all the water on Earth's surface. Ganymede’s ocean is estimated to be 60 miles (100 kilometers) thick – 10 times deeper than Earth's ocean – and is thought to be buried under a 95-mile- (150-kilometer-) thick crust of mostly ice. Identifying liquid water is crucial in the search for habitable worlds beyond Earth, and in the search for life as we know it. (source)

We also have Callisto, Jupiter’s second largest moon.

Once thought to be a dead, inactive rocky body, data gathered by the Galileo spacecraft in the 1990s indicate Callisto may have a salty ocean beneath its icy surface. More recent research reveals that this ocean may be located deeper beneath the surface than previously thought, or may not exist at all. If an ocean is present, it’s possible the ocean is interacting with rock on Callisto, creating a potential habitat for life. (source)

Also, a paltry 100 light years from good ol’ beleaguered Earth is TOI-1452 b. Astronomers think it could be an ocean planet—all water, all the time.

IF there's life on these moons and planets, do they look like octopuses and squids? Are they smarter than humans? Yeah, I know, that wouldn't take much.

I strongly believe we should send Musk, Bezos, and Zuck out to the Draco constellation and the Kepler-138 system to investigate. If they’re pressed for time, Saturn’s a mere 943.99 million miles from us. Better yet, Jupiter is only 397.38 million miles away. Hell’s bells, a walk up to my neighborhood packy would take longer (maybe that’s just me though).


Speaking of water (and we most certainly were), Trump said he wants to rename the Gulf of Mexico after himself. Unfortunately Bay of Pigs is already taken.