Callisto

Thermal Conductivity Measurements Of Macroscopic Frozen Salt Ice Analogs Of Jovian Icy Moons In Support Of The Planned JUICE Mission

By Keith Cowing
astro-ph.EP]
December 12, 2021
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Thermal Conductivity Measurements Of Macroscopic Frozen Salt Ice Analogs Of Jovian Icy Moons In Support Of The Planned JUICE Mission
JUICE
ESA

The study of thermal properties of frozen salt solutions representative of ice layers in Jovian moons is crucial to support the JUpiter ICy moons Explorer (JUICE) (ESA) and Europa Clipper (NASA) missions.

These missions will be launched in the upcoming years to make detailed observations of the giant gaseous planet Jupiter and three of its largest moons (Ganymede, Europa, and Callisto), due to the scarcity of experimental measurements. Therefore, we have conducted a set of experiments to measure and study the thermal conductivity of macroscopic frozen salt solutions of particular interest in these regions, including sodium chloride (NaCl), magnesium sulphate (MgSO4), sodium sulphate (Na2SO4), and magnesium chloride (MgCl2).

Measurements were performed at atmospheric pressure and temperatures from 0 to -70∘C in a climatic chamber. Temperature and calorimetry were measured during the course of the experiments. An interesting side effect of these measurements is that they served to spot phase changes in the frozen salt solutions, even for very low salt concentrations.

A small sample of the liquid salt-water solution was set aside for the calorimetry measurements. These experiments and the measurements of thermal conductivity and calorimetry will be valuable to constrain the chemical composition, physical state, and temperature of the icy crusts of Ganymede, Europa, and Callisto.

Cristóbal González Díaz, Sofia Aparicio Secanellas, Guillermo M. Muñoz Caro, José Javier Anaya Velayos, Hector Carrascosa, Margarita G. Hernández, Victoria Muñoz-Iglesias, Ángel Marcos-Fernández, Olga Prieto-Ballesteros, Rosario Lorente, Olivier Witasse, Nicolas Altobelli

Subjects: Earth and Planetary Astrophysics (astro-ph.EP); Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics (astro-ph.IM)
Journal reference: MNRAS 2021
DOI: 10.1093/mnras/stab3634
Cite as: arXiv:2112.05697 [astro-ph.EP] (or arXiv:2112.05697v1 [astro-ph.EP] for this version)
Submission history
From: Cristobal Gonzalez Diaz Dr.
[v1] Fri, 10 Dec 2021 17:43:20 UTC (14,033 KB)
https://arxiv.org/abs/2112.05697
Astrobiology,

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) 🖖🏻