Hi, I'm new here.
This article interested me and I wanted to seek opinion on this statement:
Habitable hycean worlds, in contrast, could be found anywhere from as close to a Sun-like star as the orbit of Venus to as far out as, well, anywhere — even outside a star system.
“They can be free-floating planets,” Madhusudhan says, their insulating hydrogen atmospheres preserving habitable conditions even in the vast darkness of interstellar space.
Can someone explain this to me? I understand that the Hydrogen atmosphere may be a very good insulator, but claims about how far out these planets can be whilst maintaining liquid water seem a little exagerrated. At some point even the Hydrogen would become solid, without some heat source. Is the solid core of the planet assumed to hold heat, like on Earth?
In reality, how far out do you think the orbit could be whilst maintaining liquid water from solar irradiation alone? (For example using a sun like our own)
Sorry if this is a stupid question.