Two Southwest Research Institute instruments were launched aboard NASA’s Europa Clipper spacecraft on Oct. 14 from the agency’s Kennedy Space Center. The spacecraft is designed to conduct a detailed reconnaissance […]
We present near-infrared high-dispersion spectroscopic observations of Europa using the Infrared Camera and Spectrograph (IRCS) onboard the Subaru Telescope, seeking direct evidence of water plumes on Europa and exploring spatial […]
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 […]
Water vapor produces a series of diagnostic emission lines in the near infrared between 2.60 and 2.75 microns. The Visual and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (VIMS) onboard the Cassini spacecraft detected […]
Astrobiology research seeks to understand how life begins and evolves, and to determine whether life exist elsewhere in the universe. The discovery of diverse ocean worlds has significantly expanded the […]
Over the course of its elliptical orbit, the moon Enceladus is squeezed unevenly by Saturn’s gravitational pull and deforms from a spherical shape into a football shape and back again. […]
The Saturnian moon Enceladus presents a unique opportunity in our Solar System to search for evidence of life, given its habitable ocean and plume that deposits organic-bearing ocean material onto […]
Enceladus is a prime target in the search for life in our solar system, having an active plume likely connected to a large liquid water subsurface ocean.
A water vapour plume from Saturn’s moon Enceladus spanning more than 9600 kilometres — long enough to stretch across the Eurasian continent from Ireland to Japan — has been detected […]
What can we learn about NASA Cassini spacecraft’s discovery of tiny particles from the icy ocean of Saturn’s moon Enceladus? What is causing these nanometer-sized silica grains to rise up […]
