Astronomers are now studying a new type of planet that could support alien life. The name is a combination of hydrogen and ocean. These planets are hot waterworlds that have hydrogen-rich atmospheres.
Oceanus, an ancient Greek river that surrounded the Earth's disc, was referred to as the son of Uranus or Gaia. Hydrogen is Greek for water-generating. It is combined with O 2 to make H.
This reaction can also occur in hydrogen fuel cells, which produce electricity. But where does hydrogen come from? It comes mainly from the burning of fossil fuels. In a remarkable act of Unspeak, one type of CO2-emitting processes is called blue hydrogen. This is presumably because hydrogen is colorless, and hydrogen's association with clear skies is rhetorical greenwashing. Blue hydrogen stores some, but not all, of the CO2 produced. Your actual green hydrogen is made from renewable energy.
Let's not underestimate human ingenuity. With enough global warming and sea-level rise, Earth could be transformed into a hycean for extraterrestrials to study.
