Related papers: Enabling Ice Core Science on Mars and Ocean Worlds

Mars is the only planet, other than Earth, for which there are several evidences that liquid water was abundant at the surface. Among them, one of the best evidence is that the ancient terrains of Mars are covered with fluvial and…

Mars' tadpole craters are small, young craters whose crater rims are incised by one or more exit breaches but lack visible inlets. The tadpole forming climate records the poorly understood drying of Mars since the Early Hesperian. A third…

The distribution of subsurface water ice on Mars is a key constraint on past climate, while the volumetric concentration of buried ice (pore-filling versus excess) provides information about the process that led to its deposition. We…

The subsurface oceans of icy satellites are among the most compelling among the potentially habitable environments in our Solar System. The question of whether a liquid subsurface layer can be maintained over geological timescales depends…

The composition of the surface of the Galilean icy moons has been debated since the Galileo mission. Several chemistries have been proposed to explain the composition of the non-icy component of the moon's surfaces, notably, sulphuric acid…

It has been suggested that the comet-like activity of Main Belt Comets is due to the sublimation of sub-surface water-ice that is exposed when these objects are impacted by meter-sized bodies. We recently examined this scenario and showed…

This paper is the first paper of a series that will present the derivation of the modal mineralogy of Mars (M3 project) at a global scale from the near-infrared dataset acquired by the imaging spectrometer OMEGA (Observatoire pour la…

Recent analysis of scientific data from Cassini and earth-based observations gave evidence for a global ocean under a surrounding solid ice shell on Saturn's moon Enceladus. Images of Enceladus' South Pole showed several fissures in the ice…

The impact heat accumulated during the late stage of planetary accretion can melt a significant part or even the entire mantle of a terrestrial body, giving rise to a global magma ocean. [...] Assuming fractional crystallization of the…

Global carbon-cycle on our planet ties together the living and the non-living world, coupling ecosystem function to our climate. Gravity driven downward flux of carbon in our oceans in the form of marine snow, commonly referred to as…

When ice on the surface of dust grains in protoplanetary disk sublimates, it adds its latent heat of water sublimation to the surrounding flow. Drawing on the analogy provided by tropical cyclones on Earth, we investigate if this energy…

So far no designated mission to either of the two ice giants, Uranus and Neptune, exists. Almost all of our gathered information on these planets comes from remote sensing. In recent years, NASA and ESA have started planning for future…

With the ChemCam instrument, laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) has successively contributed to Mars exploration by determining elemental compositions of the soil, crust and rocks. Two new lunched missions, Chinese Tianwen 1 and…

The increasing number and complexity of planetary exploration space missions require new tools to access, visualize and analyse data to improve their scientific return. ASI Science Data Center (ASDC) addresses this request with the web-tool…

The frequently discovered flooding structure on Mars and other planets has long been an intriguing mystery remained un-disclosed so far. Considering that on Earth, quite a few low melting point liquid metals or their alloy can be candidates…

Over the last eight years, the Visual and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (VIMS) aboard the Cassini orbiter has returned hyperspectral images in the 0.35-5.1 micron range of the icy satellites and rings of Saturn. These very different objects…

We investigate the prospects for the past or current existence of habitable conditions deep underneath the surfaces of the Moon and Mars as well as generic bound and free-floating extrasolar rocky objects. We construct a simple model that…

Chloride-bearing deposits on Mars record high-elevation lakes during the waning stages of Mars' wet era (mid-Noachian to late Hesperian). The water source pathways, seasonality, salinity, depth, lifetime, and paleoclimatic drivers of these…

Exploration of Mars has been made possible using a series of landers, rovers and orbiters. The HiRise camera on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) has captured high-resolution images covering large tracts of the surface. However, orbital…

In this study we assess the presence, nature and properties of ices - in particular water ice - that occur within these spots using HIRISE and CRISM observations, as well as the LMD Global Climate Model. Our studies focus on Richardson…