The prebiotic potential of ocean worlds such as Europa and Enceladus, while not well constrained, is vital in the search for potential life elsewhere.
Deep space missions face extreme communication delays and environmental uncertainty that prevent real-time ground operations.
A new study led by researchers from Oxford University and Southwest Research Institute and the Planetary Science Institute in Tucson, Arizona has provided the first evidence of significant heat flow […]
A poleward-thinning ice shell can drive circulation in the subsurface oceans of icy moons by imposing a meridional temperature gradient–colder at the equator than the pole–through the freezing point suppression […]
5 November 2025 at 11:00 CET (10:00 UTC) Speaker: Thomas O’Sullivan, FU Berlin
One underexplored aspect of microbial growth is the impact of toxic gases transported through the atmosphere. Ammonia is a gas that can supply essential nitrogen but also exert cellular toxicity.
Saturn’s magnetosphere contains trapped plasma and energetic charged particles which constantly irradiate the surface of Enceladus.
Salt-rich water ice at the surfaces of icy worlds, for example, Europa, Enceladus, and Ceres, is of particular interest for Solar System exploration as it can represent a record of […]
![Enhanced view of Enceladus’ South pole region showing the locations of organic-rich geysers in blue [Source: NASA]](https://i0.wp.com/astrobiology.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Catalog-and-Characterization.png?resize=1200%2C719&ssl=1)
Saturn’s moon Enceladus is an exciting destination for future exploration missions due to the scientifically interesting geyser region located on its South pole.
Saturn’s moon Enceladus has a global ocean that is covered by an ice shell. The moon’s eccentric orbit forces the shell to librate, which distorts the shell and thereby generates […]
