icy world Archives

One exposed outcrop of the formation, found on Scottish islands called the Garvellachs, is unique as it shows the transition into “snowball Earth” from a previously warm, tropical environment.

Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Habitable Zones, Icy Worlds, Press Release, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography

Scottish And Irish Rocks Confirmed As Being A Rare Record Of Snowball Earth

by Keith CowingAugust 17, 2024August 17, 2024

The study, published in the Journal of the Geological Society of London, found that the Port Askaig Formation, composed of layers of rock up to 1.1km thick, was likely laid […]

The surface of Titan as seen by the ESA Huygens lander -- NASA/ESA

Astrochemistry, Astrogeology, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Cryobiology, Exploration Gear & Tech, Icy Worlds, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Saturn, Status Report, Titan

Titan’s Rocks Of Ice – An Interview with Christopher McKay

by Keith CowingJuly 30, 2024July 30, 2024

Huygens sent back only one picture from the surface of Titan. Some people ask, “Are there any more pictures?” They’re used to the Mars rovers, where every day you get […]

Ariel, Astrochemistry, Astrogeology, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Habitable Zones, Icy Worlds, Mapping, Geodesy, Cartography, Bathymetry, Press Release, Uranus, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography

Webb Observes Carbon Oxides On Uranus’ Moon Ariel That Hint At A Hidden Ocean

by Keith CowingJuly 26, 2024July 26, 2024

The surface of Uranus’ moon Ariel is coated with a significant amount of carbon dioxide ice, especially on its “trailing hemisphere” that always faces away from the moon’s direction of […]

This view of Jupiter's icy moon Europa was captured by JunoCam, the public engagement camera aboard NASA's Juno spacecraft, during the mission's close flyby on Sept. 29, 2022. The picture is a composite of JunoCam's second, third, and fourth images taken during the flyby, as seen from the perspective of the fourth image. North is to the left. The images have a resolution of just over 0.5 to 2.5 miles per pixel (1 to 4 kilometers per pixel). As with our Moon and Earth, one side of Europa always faces Jupiter, and that is the side of Europa visible here. Europa's surface is crisscrossed by fractures, ridges, and bands, which have erased terrain older than about 90 million years. Citizen scientist Kevin M. Gill processed the images to enhance the color and contrast. NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS Image processing: Kevin M. Gill CC BY 3.0

Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Cryobiology, Enceladus, Europa, Habitable Zones, Icy Worlds, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Mapping, Geodesy, Cartography, Bathymetry, Press Release, Radiation, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography

Biosignatures Could Survive Near The Surfaces of Enceladus and Europa

by Keith CowingJuly 23, 2024July 22, 2024

Europa, a moon of Jupiter, and Enceladus, a moon of Saturn, have evidence of oceans beneath their ice crusts. A NASA experiment suggests that if these oceans support life, signatures […]

Temperate exoplanet LHS 1140 b may be a world completely covered in ice (left) similar to Jupiter’s moon Europa or may be an ice world with a liquid substellar ocean and a cloudy atmosphere (centre). LHS 1140 b is 1.7 times the size of our planet Earth (right) and is the most promising habitable zone exoplanet yet found in the search for liquid water beyond the Solar System. CREDIT Benoit Gougeon, Université de Montréal

Astropharmacy / Biotechnology, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Habitable Zones, Icy Worlds, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Press Release, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography

Webb Telescope Finds A Potentially Habitable Icy World

by Keith CowingJuly 11, 2024July 11, 2024

A international team of astronomers led by Université de Montréal has made an exciting discovery about the temperate exoplanet LHS 1140 b: it could be a promising “super-Earth” covered in […]

Adaptation to the harsh conditions of a geologic period of global glaciation may have sparked the development of multicellular life. (image: Michael Schiffer/Unsplash)

Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Cryobiology, Extinction events, Genomics, Proteomics, Bioinformatics, Habitable Zones, Icy Worlds, Origin & Evolution of Life, Press Release, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography

Why The Harsh Snowball Earth Kick-started Our Earliest Multicellular Ancestors

by Keith CowingJune 27, 2024June 27, 2024

For a billion years, single-celled eukaryotes ruled the planet. Then around 700 million years ago during Snowball Earth — a geologic era when glaciers may have stretched as far as […]

Examples of Triton's surface morphology, which is dissimilar from the other ice-covered moons in the outer solar system. Extensive smooth planitia (plains) disrupt the cantaloupe terrain. A few small craters are notable in their sparsity. (Image center 23° E, 21° N.) Each panel is a portion of our Triton mosaic, which is in orthographic projection at a scale of 600 m pixel−1. NASA/The Planetary Science Journal

AI - Data - Apps - Cybernetics, Analog Studies, Arctic / Antarctic / Alpine, Astrogeology, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Cryobiology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Habitable Zones, Icy Worlds, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Mapping, Geodesy, Cartography, Bathymetry, Missions & Hardware, Neptune, Status Report, Triton, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography

Increasing the Usability and Accessibility of Voyager 2 Images of Triton

by Keith CowingJune 25, 2024June 25, 2024

Much of what we know about Neptune’s moon Triton was inferred from the analysis of images returned by the Voyager 2 mission, the only spacecraft to have visited that putative […]

Top panel: FC2 spectral endmember O (organic-rich), B (global Ceres background), and S (shade), respectively. Bottom panel: RGB map where the abundance of the endmember O is represented in red, the endmember B in green, and the S in blue. The pixel scale of this mosaic is ~136 m/pixel and the images were acquired with a phase value of ~50. Ernutet is the central crater (pointed by the yellow arrow) of the scene in which the organics are visible. -- astro-ph.EP

Astrochemistry, Astrogeology, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Ceres, Comets and Asteroids, Icy Worlds, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Press Release

New Candidates for Organic-rich Regions on Ceres

by Keith CowingJune 24, 2024June 24, 2024

We explore the spatial distribution of organics on Ceres using the visible and near-infrared data collected by the Dawn mission.

Lake Untersee microbial pinnacle structures -- Environmental Microbiology

Analog Studies, Arctic / Antarctic / Alpine, Away Teams & Field Reports, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Dale Andersen's Field Reports, Exploration Gear & Tech, Extremeophiles and Extreme Environments, Genomics, Proteomics, Bioinformatics, Habitable Zones, Icy Worlds, Microbiology & Virology, Robotics/Rovers/UAVs, ROVs/Submersibles/Diving, Status Report, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography

Astrobiology Expedition To Lake Untersee, Antarctica: Genome-resolved Metagenomics Reveals Diverse Taxa And Metabolic Complexity

by Keith CowingJune 18, 2024June 18, 2024

Lake Untersee, a lake in Antarctica that is perennially covered with ice, is home to unique microbial structures that are not lithified.

Suggested citation: Leonard, E., Patthoff, D. A., and Senske, D., 2024, Global geologic map of Europa: U.S. Geological Survey Scientific Investigations Map 3513, scale 1:15,000,000, pamphlet 18 p., https://doi.org/10.3133/sim3513.

Astrogeology, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Europa, Icy Worlds, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Jupiter, Mapping, Geodesy, Cartography, Bathymetry, Status Report, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography

USGS Online Interactive Map Of Europa

by Keith CowingJune 11, 2024June 11, 2024

Europa, the second inner Jovian Galilean satellite, is believed to contain a global liquid water ocean covered by an ice shell likely 10s of kilometers thick. The paucity of impact […]