Implications of possible internal liquid water oceans on Europa and other giant planets' satellites

Details Implications of possible internal liquid water oceans on Europa and other giant planets' satellites Implications of possible internal liquid water oceans on Europa and other giant planets' satellites

Oct 2011

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2011epsc.conf.1218s&link_type=abstract

EPSC-DPS Joint Meeting 2011, held 2-7 October 2011 in Nantes, France. http://meetings.copernicus.org/epsc-dps2011, p.1218

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Scientific paper

The icy satellites around Jupiter and Saturn have been revealed as recently or presently active bodies of high interest for geology and astrobiology. Several of them show promising conditions for internal structures involving liquid water oceans. The surface features observed on Jupiter's Europa and Ganymede as well as Saturn's Titan and Enceladus moons display interesting evidence and multicomplex geological figures, which resemble terrestrial geoterrains in terms of structure and possibly followed similar formation mechanisms. All aforementioned satellites consist of differentiated interiors that are stratified into a high density rocky core, a mantle and an icy crust. The confirmation of the presence of a liquid water ocean within these satellites would have important implications on the existence of solid bodies with internal liquid water in the outer Solar System well beyond the "habitable zone", with important astrobiological consequences. Indeed, an underground liquid ocean could provide a possible habitat by resembling terrestrial life-hosting environments like the deep oceans and the hydrothermal active vents. In this study we review the surficial aspects of Europa, Ganymede, Titan, and Enceladus and connect them to possible models of interior structure, with emphasis on the astrobiological implications [1].

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