Vital Signs: Seismology of Ocean Worlds
Ice covered ocean worlds are probably seismically active. Measuring that activity can provide information about global and local habitability.
This article examines the likely seismic activity of known and potential ocean worlds. We describe objectives and possible implementations for icy moon seismology. For currently known ocean worlds, we consider science objectives and technical challenges, and suggest priorities based on feasibility and potential science return.
A seismic experiment could be less complex and less susceptible to noise than those implemented on Earth’s Moon and planned for Mars. Such an investigation could probe the transport properties and radial structure of ocean worlds, yielding critical constraints on potential redox fluxes, and thus habitability.
Steven D. Vance, Sharon Kedar, Mark P. Panning, Simon C. Staehler, Bruce G. Bills, Ralph D. Lorenz, Hsin-Hua Huang, W. T. Pike, Julie C. Castillo, Philippe Lognonne, Victor C. Tsai, Alyssa R. Rhoden
(Submitted on 31 Oct 2016)
Comments: 53 pages, 3 tables, 3 figures, submitted for peer review
Subjects: Earth and Planetary Astrophysics (astro-ph.EP)
Cite as: arXiv:1610.10067 [astro-ph.EP] (or arXiv:1610.10067v1 [astro-ph.EP] for this version)
Submission history
From: Steve Vance
[v1] Mon, 31 Oct 2016 19:01:08 GMT (3341kb)
https://arxiv.org/abs/1610.10067
