Recent research suggests that Saturn’s bright rings and its largest moon, Titan, may have both originated in collisions among its moons.
Callisto
Posted inAstrochemistry, Astrogeology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Callisto, Europa, Ganymede, Icy Worlds, Io, Jupiter, Press Release
The Water Makeup Of Jupiter’s Galilean Moons Was Set At Birth
While Io, the most volcanically active moon in the solar system, appears completely dry and devoid of water ice, its neighbor Europa is thought to harbor a vast global ocean […]
Posted inCallisto, Europa, Ganymede, Icy Worlds, Io, Jupiter, Status Report
Callisto’s Nonresonant Orbit As An Outcome Of Circum-Jovian Disk Substructure
The Galilean moons of Io, Europa, and Ganymede exhibit a 4:2:1 commensurability in their mean motions, a configuration known as the Laplace resonance.
Posted inCallisto, Europa, Ganymede, Icy Worlds, Io, Jupiter, Status Report
Not Just Gas: How Solid-Driven Torques Shaped the Migration of the Galilean Moons
The primary aim of this study is to investigate the orbital migration of the Galilean moons by incorporating self-consistent solid dynamics in circumjovian disk models. We perform two-fluid simulations using […]
Posted inAriel, Astrogeology, Callisto, Ceres, Charon, Dione, Enceladus, Europa, Ganymede, Iapetus, Ice Giant, Icy Worlds, Mapping, Geodesy, Cartography, Bathymetry, Mars, Mimas, Miranda, Missions & Hardware, Moon, Oberon, Phoebe, Pluto, Polar / Alpine Expeditions, Rhea, Status Report, Tethys, Titan, Titania, Triton, Umbriel, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography
Icy Worlds: Moons And Dwarf Planets
In the outer solar system beyond Jupiter, water ice is a dominant component of planetary bodies, and most solid objects in this region are classified as icy bodies.
Posted inAstrochemistry, Astrogeology, Astronomy & Telescopes, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Callisto, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Ganymede, Icy Worlds, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Press Release
Webb Studies A Carbon-rich Moon-Forming Disk Around A Massive Planet
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has provided the first direct measurements of the chemical and physical properties of a potential moon-forming disk encircling a large exoplanet. The carbon-rich disk surrounding […]
Posted inAstrochemistry, Astrogeology, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Callisto, Icy Worlds, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Status Report
Spectroscopic Mapping of Callisto with HST/STIS and Implications for its Surface Composition
We present global, spatially resolved ultraviolet-visible spectra of Callisto obtained with HST/STIS and explore possible compositions of Callisto’s surface material.
Posted inAstrogeology, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Callisto, Ganymede, Icy Worlds, Mapping, Geodesy, Cartography, Bathymetry, Press Release
Conditions For Accretion Favoring An Unmelted Callisto And A Differentiated Ganymede
Analysis of Callisto’s moments of inertia, derived from Galileo’s gravity data, suggests that its structure is not fully differentiated.
Posted inAnalog Studies, Arctic / Antarctic / Alpine, Astrogeology, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Away Teams & Field Reports, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Callisto, Cryobiology, Enceladus, Europa, Extremeophiles and Extreme Environments, Habitable Zones, Icy Worlds, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Jupiter, Mapping, Geodesy, Cartography, Bathymetry, Missions & Hardware, Nomenclature, Systematics, Natural History, Robotics/Rovers/UAVs, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography
Ice Planet Exploration: A Dataset Of Antarctic Ecosystems In Ice-free Lands
Astrobiology.com Editor’s note: Recently the Fram2 mission took four astronaut explorers on an orbital path that covered both of our planet’s polar regions. This was the fist human mission to […]
Posted inAstrogeology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Callisto, Icy Worlds, Jupiter, Press Release, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography
Callisto Is Very Likely an Ocean World
More pocked with craters than any other object in our solar system, Jupiter’s outermost and second-biggest Galilean moon, Callisto, appears geologically unremarkable. In the 1990s, however, NASA’s Galileo spacecraft captured […]