Abstract
The icy satellites of Jupiter and Saturn are perhaps the most promising places in the Solar System regarding habitability. However, the potential habitable environments are hidden underneath km-thick ice shells. The discovery of Enceladus’ plume by the Cassini mission has provided vital clues in our understanding of the processes occurring within the interior of exooceans. To interpret these data and to help configure instruments for future missions, controlled laboratory experiments and simulations are needed. This review aims to bring together studies and experimental designs from various scientific fields currently investigating the icy moons, including planetary sciences, chemistry, (micro-)biology, geology, glaciology, etc. This chapter provides an overview of successful in situ, in silico, and in vitro experiments, which explore different regions of interest on icy moons, i.e. a potential plume, surface, icy shell, water and brines, hydrothermal vents, and the rocky core.
Highlights
The detection and characterization of Enceladus’ plume has been a major discovery of the Cassini mission (Hansen et al 2006; Porco et al 2006)
To be able to interpret the data collected by instruments on board of missions, such as NASA’s Cassini or ESA’s JUICE (JUpiter ICy moons Explorer) probes, we have to conduct laboratory experiments to simulate the effects particles experience during such high-speed in situ sampling
Robotic missions like NASA’s Cassini and Galileo collected an assortment of data which has to be interpreted using information gained by in situ, in silico, and in vitro Earth-based experiments
Summary
We provide an overview of successful in situ, in silico, and in vitro experiments, which explore different regions of interest on icy moons, i.e. a potential plume, surface, icy shell, water and brines, hydrothermal vents, and the rocky core
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