Icy Worlds

White Paper Towards a Fuller Understanding of Icy Satellite Seafloors, Interiors, and Habitability

By Keith Cowing
Press Release
astro-ph.IM
July 20, 2020
Filed under
White Paper Towards a Fuller Understanding of Icy Satellite Seafloors, Interiors, and Habitability
Hydrothermal vent
astro-ph.IM

Icy satellites represent compelling astrobiological targets, but their rocky interiors must be better characterized.

Fundamental research programs and thematic workshops promoting ocean world interdisciplinarity are key. Future missions to icy satellites should explicitly include objectives to characterize interfaces between rock and water or high-pressure ices.

Paul K. Byrne, Andrew J. Dombard, Catherine M. Elder, Steven A. Hauck, II, Mohit Melwani Daswani, Paul V. Regensburger, Steven D. Vance

Comments: 7 pages, 2 figures, prepared for the NASEM Planetary Science and Astrobiology Decadal Survey 2023-2032
Subjects: Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics (astro-ph.IM); Earth and Planetary Astrophysics (astro-ph.EP)
Cite as: arXiv:2007.09728 [astro-ph.IM] (or arXiv:2007.09728v1 [astro-ph.IM] for this version)
Submission history
From: Paul Byrne
[v1] Sun, 19 Jul 2020 17:41:41 UTC (8,887 KB)
https://arxiv.org/abs/2007.09728
Astrobiology

Keith Cowing

Explorers Club Fellow, ex-NASA Space Station Payload manager/space biologist, Away Teams, Journalist, Lapsed climber, Synaesthete, Na’Vi-Jedi-Freman-Buddhist-mix, ASL, Devon Island and Everest Base Camp veteran, (he/him) 🖖🏻

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