Related papers: Europa's Surface Water-ice Crystallinity and Corre…
The surfaces of some icy moons, such as Jupiter's moon Europa, are heavily bombarded by energetic particles that can alter the surface materials and affect the composition of its exosphere. Detection of CO2 on Europa's surface indicate that…
The presence of a hydrosphere on Europa raises questions about its habitability, and studies of its volatile inventory can provide insight into its formation process. Different scenarios suggest that Europa's volatiles could be derived from…
Geophysical measurements can reveal the structure of icy ocean worlds and cycling of volatiles. The associated density, temperature, sound speed, and electrical conductivity of such worlds thus characterizes their habitability. To explore…
Hypothesis: Seawater ice and frozen aqueous solutions in contact with air can exhibit a thin quasi-brine surface layer intruding between ice and vapor, but a detailed characterization of surface properties and its relation to three phase…
Organics, if they do exist on Europa, may only be present in trace amounts on the surface. NASA's upcoming mission Europa Clipper is going to provide global, high quality data of the surface of Europa in the near-infrared (NIR),…
Ice formation is one of the most common and important processes on earth and almost always occurs at the surface of a material. A basic understanding of how the physicochemical properties of a material's surface affect its ability to form…
Experiments and computer simulations have established that liquid water's surfaces can deviate in important ways from familiar bulk behavior. Even in the simplest case of an air-water interface, distinctive layering, orientational biases,…
Heterogeneous ice growth exhibits a maximum in freezing rate arising from the competition between kinetics and the thermodynamic driving force between the solid and liquid states. Here, we use molecular dynamics simulations to elucidate the…
We present mid-infrared SOFIA/EXES spectroscopy of Europa, seeking direct evidence of the presence of water vapor arising from plumes venting from the surface of Europa. We place quantitatively useful upper limits on the strength of water…
Europa's surface exhibits morphological features which, associated with a low crater density, might be interpreted to have formed as a result of recent cryovolcanic activity. In particular, the morphology of smooth deposits covering parts…
Hydrogen peroxide is part of an important radiolytic cycle on Europa and may be a critical source of oxidants to the putative subsurface ocean. The surface geographic distribution of hydrogen peroxide may constrain the processes governing…
Deposition of water on aerosol particles contributes to ice cloud formation in the atmosphere with implications for the water cycle and climate on Earth. The heterogeneous ice nucleation process is influenced by physico-chemical properties…
Despite the fact that the observed gradient in water content among the Galilean satellites is globally consistent with a formation in a circum-Jovian disk on both sides of the snowline, the mechanisms that led to a low water mass fraction…
The deep (~100 km) ocean of Europa, Jupiter's moon, covered by a thick icy shell, is one of the most probable places in the solar system to find extraterrestrial life. Yet, its ocean dynamics and its interaction with the ice cover have…
The early prediction and subsequent detection of an O$_2$ atmosphere on Europa, coupled with the discovery that Europa has an ocean under its ice mantle, has made this moon a prime astrobiologic target, soon to be visited by the JUICE and…
The salinity of water and the slope of ice significantly influence the melt rate and surface morphology of ice, both highly relevant in the context of glacier and iceberg melting in oceanic environments. In this study, we conducted…
A disordered quasi-liquid layer of water is thought to cover the ice surface, but many issues, such as its onset temperature, its thickness, or its actual relation to bulk liquid water have been a matter of unsettled controversy for more…
We performed numerical simulations of impact crater formation on Europa to infer the thickness and structure of its ice shell. The simulations were performed using iSALE to test both the conductive ice shell over ocean and the conductive…
A multiphysics simulation model incorporating a sintering model coupled with the MultIHeaTS thermal solver was developed to study the evolution of icy moons' microstructure. The sintering process is highly dependent on temperature, and this…
The surfaces of icy moons are primarily composed of water ice that can be mixed with other compounds, such as carbon dioxide. The carbon dioxide (CO$_2)$ stretching fundamental band observed on Europa and Ganymede appears to be a…