Sky Father is the anthropomorphized source of all the surprises we have been finding in the universe I have been using. In the old mythologies, there was Mother Earth and Father Sky. Since these posts have been about astronomy, father sky seemed like a proper avatar for the surprises we have seen out there. Because it seems like the concept seems to have a sense of humor, surprising us over and over almost every single time we think we have a grasp of what is out there in the universe, I flipped it around and called the concept Sky Father instead. He seems to be that amusing, exasperating grandfather who is always pulling pranks.
And he seems to have pulled one more.
My next post Sky Father was going to be on Dark Matter and how it has been a huge conundrum for astronomers for decades now: where is that missing matter? However, a recent paper has me turning back to the exoplanets we have been finding. The existence of several different types of planets we do not have in our own solar system was a shock. So many of them seemed to not be...possible.
Two types were what I called the evil twins, super earths and mini neptunes. SuperEarths seemed like a scaled up version of Earth, rocky with a thin atmosphere (in relative terms). Mini neptunes seemed to be an earth sized core with a veneer of volatiles (like water) and then a very, very thick hydrogen and helium atmosphere.
Or so we thought. And, yes, Sky Father got another snickering out of misconceptions.
It turns out after recent studies and research that the so-called mini neptunes are not much like neptune at all. They are water worlds. These worlds are mostly water with a smallish (maybe the size of earth) core of rock and oceans potentially as deep at the diameter of the earth.
It's highly unlikely to be friendly to life, so don't get excited about the idea of there being that much water. Very little of the nutrients life needs would be present. Take a cup of oatmeal and put in a cup of water. That could be a nice meal. Take a cup of oatmeal and put it in an Olympic sized pool. That would not be. Now, make the pool the size of an ocean and you have even less for life to live on.
The structure of the "mini neptunes" would be rather different than Earth, too. All the pressure from the water's weigh would actually crush the water at the bottom, at the rocky core, into ice. Not ice like we know it, cold and somewhat hard, but ice that is actually, possibly hot and still solid. That ice would act as a further cap to prevent nutrients from entering "mini neptune's" world ocean.
In truth, these worlds are not true 'mini neptunes.' They appear to be something else. In which case, they need their own, distinct name. I would suggest Atlantean as the descriptor if the research holds up. The name comes from the Greek mythological city that sunk beneath the waves. It might be seen as a bit too occidental, but as yet most of the research being done on exoplanets is in the West. Other suggestions are welcome from other mythologies. What do my readers think?
No matter what, though, whatever name gets applied to these worlds, Sky Father had yet another stinker for us to deal with. The Mini neptunes are not light and fluffy, but rather they slosh.
Hear that giggle? That's Sky Father. As he winks.
Again.
