Evidence map›Paper›PMID 40789034›Full record

ArticleProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America2025

Warm, water-depleted rocky exoplanets with surface ionic liquids: A proposed class for planetary habitability.

Rachana Agrawal, Sara Seager, Iaroslav Iakubivskyi, Weston P Buchanan, Ana Glidden, Maxwell D Seager, William Bains, Jingcheng Huang, Janusz J Petkowski

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
2citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

2 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Ionic Liquid Biospheres.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026
    Article
  2. Warm, water-depleted rocky exoplanets with surface ionic liquids: A proposed class for planetary habitability.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025
    Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

9 authors.

Rachana AgrawalDepartment of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139.ORCID 0000-0003-4504-3971
Sara SeagerDepartment of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139.ORCID 0000-0002-6892-6948
Iaroslav IakubivskyiDepartment of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139.
Weston P BuchananDepartment of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139.
Ana GliddenDepartment of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139.
Maxwell D SeagerDepartment of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Worcester, MA 01609.
William BainsSchool of Physics and Astronomy, Cardiff University, Cardiff CF24 3AA, United Kingdom.ORCID 0000-0001-5503-3764
Jingcheng HuangDepartment of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139.
Janusz J PetkowskiFaculty of Environmental Engineering, Wroclaw University of Science and Technology, Wroclaw 50-370, Poland.ORCID 0000-0002-1921-4848

Funding

Nanoplanet Consulting N/ASimons Foundation (SF) G-2023-20929Volkswagen Foundation (VolkswagenStiftung) 9E126
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

The discovery of thousands of exoplanets and the emergence of telescopes capable of exoplanet atmospheric characterization have intensified the search for habitable worlds. Due to selection biases, many exoplanets under study are planets deemed inhospitable because their surfaces are too warm to support liquid water. We propose that such planets could still support life through ionic liquids: Liquid salts with negligible vapor pressure that can persist on warm planets with thin atmospheres, where liquid water cannot. Ionic liquids have not previously been considered as naturally occurring substances, and thus have not been discussed in planetary science. We demonstrate in laboratory experiments that ionic liquids can form from planetary materials: Sulfuric acid combined with nitrogen-containing organic molecules. Sulfuric acid can be volcanic in origin, and organic compounds are commonly found on planetary bodies. The required planetary surface is water-depleted and must support sulfuric acid transiently in liquid phase to dissolve organics, followed by evaporation of excess liquid-conditions spanning approximately 300 K at 10

Indexed as

astrobiologyexoplanetsionic liquids

Identifiers

PMID40789034
PMCPMC12377647

What OpenQuestion holds

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LicenceCC BY
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Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.