The world of astronomy just keeps getting “curiouser and curiouser”. This is one of what I believe will be a spate of articles published about exo-planets:
Sultry World Found Circling the Star GJ 1214 - NYTimes.com
What is most interesting is the idea that liquid water can exist at 400 degrees F. How can we have a liquid ocean at such a high temperature? Does water not boil at 212 degrees F? What is the reason for this claim in this article?
The answer (or at least what I thought of today) is that water boils as 212 degrees F under normal conditions, but conditions on this world are certainly not normal! Although we cannot go there and make direct observations, we can infer some of the possible conditions on this planet. We can also use some of our engineering and physics knowledge here on Earth to help us get a grip on this concept.
For instance, do we know of conditions where water would not boil at 400 degrees F? The answer is yes. The below link shows us an engineering graph of the boiling point of water based on different pressure conditions:
http://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/boiling-point-water-d_926.html
We can see from this diagram that we can have many conditions where water would be able to be liquid and still be that hot as long as the needed pressure condtions were met. Reading the graph, we see that it is possible for water to be liquid if the pressure is greater than approx 280 psi.
Needless to say, it does not sound like a hospitable world for us, be as we have seen on Earth - life finds a way!
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