Assessing the potential for liquid solvents from X-ray sources:
  considerations on bodies orbiting AGN
  Aims. We aim to establish a rough first prospect on the potential of certain
biorelevant solvents (water, ammonia and methane) to be present in liquid form
inside the uppermost few meters of several modelled surfaces (rocky and icy
crusts of various compositions) of hypothetical bodies orbiting active galactic
nuclei (AGN), and investigate under which constraints this might occur.
Methods. We adjust and average together X-ray spectra from a sample of 20 Type
1 Seyfert galaxies to calculate a mean snowline of the sample used. Based on
this, we introduce variation of a hypothetical body's orbit across distances
between 10% and 100% of the snowline radius, and calculate a sub-surface
attenuation within four different model surface compositions for each. Surface
compositions are based on lunar soil and solvent ices found in the milky way's
circumnuclear region. We then use this as a continuous source term for a
thermal model. Example bodies are systematically investigated with sizes
between 1/30 and 20 earth radii. Further outlier variations are also considered
(such as the case of bound rotation of the body) to end up with a perspective
of solvent phases under a wide slew of many different conditions. Results. We
find that liquid solvents are possible under a multitude of parameters, with
temperature being the main constraint to liquid water and body size as well as
pressure being the main constraint to liquid methane and ammonia. We further
find that these results, when adjusted for snowline distance, depend less on
the energy output of the central source within the Seyfert Type 1 AGN than on
other parameters, such as body sizes and solvent properties.
