Enceladus is the Saturnian satellite known to have water vapor erupting from its south pole region called Tiger Stripes.
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Posted inArctic / Antarctic / Alpine, Away Teams & Field Reports, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Cryobiology, Exploration Gear & Tech, Extremeophiles and Extreme Environments, Genomics, Proteomics, Bioinformatics, Habitable Zones, Icy Worlds, Microbiology & Virology, Press Release
Giant Viruses Have Been Found On Greenland’s Ice Sheet
Every spring when the sun rises in the Arctic after months of darkness, life returns. The polar bears pop up from their winter lairs, the arctic tern soar back from […]
Posted inAstrochemistry, Astronomy & Telescopes, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Icy Worlds, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Interstellar, Status Report
Formation of Alkylsulfonic Acids in Interstellar Analog Ices
For the last century, the source of sulfur in Earth’s very first organisms has remained a fundamental, unsolved enigma.
Posted inAstrogeology, Astronomy & Telescopes, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Habitable Zones, Icy Worlds, Mapping, Geodesy, Cartography, Bathymetry, Status Report, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography
Potential Surface Ice Distribution On Close-in Terrestrial Exoplanets Around M dwarfs
Previous studies suggested that surface ice could be distributed on close-in terrestrial exoplanets around M-dwarfs if heat redistribution on the planets is very inefficient.
Posted inAnalog Studies, Arctic / Antarctic / Alpine, Away Teams & Field Reports, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Cryobiology, Exploration Gear & Tech, Habitable Zones, Icy Worlds, Status Report, Tricorders & Sensors
Away Team Field Test Of WATSON Biosignature Tricorder In Greenland
During 2019 field tests near Greenland’s Summit Station, a high-elevation remote observing station, the WATSON (Wireline Analysis Tool for the Subsurface Observation of Northern ice sheets) instrument is put through […]
Posted inAstrochemistry, Astronomy & Telescopes, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Comets and Asteroids, Interstellar, Status Report
Comprehensive Laboratory Constraints On Thermal Desorption Of Interstellar Ice Analogues
To explain grain growth and destruction in warm media, ice mantle formation and sublimation in cold media, and gas line emission spectroscopy, astrochemical models must mimic the gas–solid abundance ratio. […]
Posted inBiogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Enceladus, Europa, Habitable Zones, Icy Worlds, Missions & Hardware, Status Report, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography
Icy Ocean Worlds, Plumes, And Tasting The Water
This paper considers how space missions that fly through the plumes known, or suspected, to erupt naturally from some icy ocean worlds (IOW), such as Enceladus, or that aim to […]
Posted inAstrogeology, Callisto, Caves, Craters, Mountains, Subsurface, Lava Tubes, Ganymede, Icy Worlds, Jupiter, Mapping, Geodesy, Cartography, Bathymetry, Status Report
Iceworld Morphology: Dome Craters on Ganymede and Callisto May Form by Topographic Relaxation of Pit Craters Aided by Remnant Impact Heat
The icy Galilean satellites display impact crater morphologies that are rare in the Solar System. They deviate from the archetypal sequence of crater morphologies as a function of size found […]
Posted inAstrochemistry, Astrogeology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Cryobiology, Enceladus, Europa, Icy Worlds, Microbiology & Virology, Missions & Hardware, Press Release, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography
Signs Of Life Are Detectable In A Single Ice Grain Emitted From Icy Moons
The ice-encrusted oceans of some of the moons orbiting Saturn and Jupiter are leading candidates in the search for extraterrestrial life. A new lab-based study led by the University of […]
Posted inAstrogeology, Callisto, Caves, Craters, Mountains, Subsurface, Lava Tubes, Ganymede, Icy Worlds, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Impact events, Mapping, Geodesy, Cartography, Bathymetry, Status Report
Large Impact Features on Ganymede and Callisto as Revealed by Geological Mapping and Morphometry
We have performed topographic and geological mapping of 19 large impact features on Ganymede and Callisto in order to gather morphometric and crater age data that allow us to quantify […]