The geophysical evolution and astrobiological potential of ocean worlds are indelibly linked to the chemical compositions of their oceans and ice shells.
Coordinating with the CaSSIS instrument on the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter, we acquired an image at this site for seasonal monitoring.
Complex organic molecules (COMs) are thought to form in cold interstellar environments, yet the chemical routes to key prebiotic precursors remain poorly understood. Glycine, the simplest amino acid, has not […]
The icy material within protoplanetary disks plays a central role in planet formation, yet remains poorly characterized by observations. We present 1.6-28μm spectra of five disks obtained as part of […]
Using JWST/MIRI observations, we report the detection of CO2 ice in the dusty torus of the planetary nebula NGC 6302, an environment generally considered hostile to fragile molecular species and […]
The chemical evolution in star forming regions is driven by the interplay between gas and ice mantles. Identifying the ice compositions at the early stage of star formation thus provides […]
Jupiter’s moon Europa is thought to harbour a saltwater ocean beneath a variously disrupted ice shell, and it is, thus, one of the highest priority astrobiology targets in the Solar […]
A team of scientists from several U.S. institutions, including the University of Minnesota, discovered six million year old ice in Antarctica — the oldest dated ice on the planet.
Interstellar ices are mainly composed of amorphous solid water (ASW) containing small amounts of hypervolatiles, such as O2, whose diffusion-limited reactions play a key role in space chemistry. Although O2 […]
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 […]
