Prospects for biological evolution on Hycean worlds

TL;DR

This study explores the potential for biological evolution on Hycean worlds, showing that temperature variations significantly influence evolutionary rates and biosignature strength, impacting the detectability of life on these exoplanets.

Contribution

It provides a detailed analysis of how thermodynamic conditions on Hycean worlds affect microbial evolution and biosignature production, highlighting the importance of temperature in biosphere development.

Findings

Warmer oceans increase evolutionary rates and biosignature strength.

Cooler Hycean worlds may host simpler microbial life with weaker biosignatures.

Temperature shifts can delay or accelerate the emergence of detectable biospheres.

Abstract

Recent detections of carbon-bearing molecules in the atmosphere of a candidate Hycean world, K2-18 b, with JWST are opening the prospects for characterising potential biospheres on temperate exoplanets. Hycean worlds are a recently theorised class of habitable exoplanets with ocean covered surfaces and hydrogen-rich atmospheres. Hycean planets are thought to be conducive for hosting microbial life under conditions similar to those in the Earth's oceans. In the present work we investigate the potential for biological evolution on Hycean worlds and their dependence on the thermodynamic conditions. We find that a large range of evolutionary rates and origination times are possible for unicellular life in oceanic environments for a relatively marginal range in environmental conditions. For example, a relatively small (10 K) increase in the average ocean temperature can lead to over twice the evolutionary rates, with key unicellular groups originating as early as $\sim$1.3 billion years from origin of life. On the contrary, similar decreases in temperatures can also significantly delay the origination times by several billion years. This delay in turn could affect their observable biomarkers such as dimethylsulfide, which is known to be produced predominantly by Eukaryotic marine phytoplankton in Earth's oceans. Therefore, Hycean worlds that are significantly cooler than Earth may be expected to host simpler microbial life than Earth's oceans and may show weaker biosignatures, unless they orbit significantly older stars than the Sun. Conversely, Hycean worlds with warmer surface temperatures than Earth are more likely to show stronger atmospheric biosignatures due to microbial life if present.