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So, for a sci-fi project, I am imagining the star system Ran, (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epsilon_Eridani) as being orbited by five planets: a gas giant (Aegir) and an ice giant (Dufa) a “young mars” which still has water and an atmosphere (Kolga) and an inhospitable Venus-like planet (Hronn).

The fifth (Bara) I want to be something new, so I was looking up hypothetical planet types and came across this: a Hycean planet. These are described on Wikipedia as being:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypothetical_astronomical_object

A hot, water-covered planet with a hydrogen-rich atmosphere that is possibly capable of harboring life

But other than this I could find little info on them. What would a Hycean planet look like?

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    $\begingroup$ "What would a Hycean planet look like?": Round and biggg? $\endgroup$
    – AlexP
    Commented Jan 17, 2023 at 22:10
  • $\begingroup$ Tip.. worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/search?q=hycean+planet $\endgroup$
    – Goodies
    Commented Jan 17, 2023 at 23:29
  • $\begingroup$ What have you found yourself so far? There are many sources available, so this looks a bit like a do-my-work-for-me question. $\endgroup$
    – Joachim
    Commented Jan 21, 2023 at 13:16

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This page describes hycean planets as a cross between an ocean planet and a small gas giant. The surface would be a deep ocean, and the atmosphere would be mostly hydrogen and hydrogen compounds like methane. The size would be somewhere above a super-earth (3x earth), but below the ice giant's size of 17x Earth.

These types of planets are hopeful candidates for finding life, since they're ripe for the formation of hydrocarbons.

From the outside, they would look a lot like Neptune or Uranus, only smaller. You might be able to see the water's surface, and you would definitely be able to see hurricanes all over it. If life were to form in the clouds, they could provide a lot of color.

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  • $\begingroup$ And on a low-friction oceanic world you'd probably get some really immense hurricanes. Maybe long-lasting ones like the various "spots" of the gas giants. $\endgroup$
    – BMF
    Commented Jan 17, 2023 at 23:54
  • $\begingroup$ @BMF, yea, that's what I was thinking. Have you seen the south pole of Jupiter imagery? $\endgroup$
    – Robert Rapplean
    Commented Jan 18, 2023 at 4:06

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