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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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At least 343 records · Page 19
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NASA NTRS1987

Europa, tidally heated oceans, and habitable zones around giant planets

Tidal dissipation in the satellites of a giant planet may provide sufficient heating to maintain an environment favorable to life on the satellite surface or just below a thin ice layer. Europa could have a liquid ocean which may occasionally receive sunlight through cracks in the overlying ice shell. In such a case, sufficient solar energy could reach liquid water that organisms similar to those found under Antarctic ice could grow. In other solar systems, larger satellites with more significant heat flow could represent environments that are stable over an order of eons and in which life could perhaps evolve. A zone around a giant planet is defined in which such satellites could exist as a tidally-heated habitable zone. This zone can be compared to the habitable zone which results from heating due to the radiation of a central star. In this solar system, this radiatively-heated habitable zone contains the earth.

Reynolds, Ray T.↗
NASA NTRS1988

Europa - The prospects for an ocean

Tidal dissipation in the satellites of a giant planet may provide sufficient heating to maintain a liquid water ocean below a thin ice layer. In the solar system, Europa, one of the Galilean satellites of Jupiter, may have such an ocean. Both theoretical calculations and certain observations support its existence, although proof is lacking. The putative ocean would probably have temperatures, pressures, and chemistry conducive to biologic activity. However, the environment would be severely energy limited. Possible energy sources include transient transmission of sunlight through fractures in the ice and hydrothermal activity on the ocean floor. While temporary conditions could exist that are within the range of adaptation of certain terrestrial organisms, origin of life under such conditions seems unlikely. In other solar systems, however, larger satellites with more significant heat flow could provide environments that are stable over an order of aeons and in which life could perhaps evolve.

Reynolds, R. T.↗
NASA NTRS1989

Magnetospheric ion bombardment profiles of satellites - Europa and Dione

Bombardment profiles generated by tracking ions in magnetospheric plasmas onto the surface of a satellite with a suitable description of the ion motion are used to calculate the spatial dependence across a satellite surface of the ion bombardment/implantation rate for satellites embedded in planetary magnetospheric plasmas. Attention is given to the results of a parameter study; a general dependency on ion gyroradius and pitch angle is noted, together with a strong dependence of access to the leading hemisphere on pitch-angle distribution. Gyromotion is found to cause differences in the bombardment of the inner and outer hemisphere. Reasonable speed and pitch-angle distributions are used to calculate profiles for sulfur ions incident on Europa and oxygen ones incident on Dione.

Pospieszalska, M. K.↗
NASA NTRS1989

Fault offsets and lateral crustal movement on Europa - Evidence for a mobile ice shell

An examination is conducted of Europa's cross-cutting structural relationships between various lineament types, in order to constrain the type of structure involved in each such case and, where possible, to also constrain the degree of extension across the lineaments. Evidence is adduced for significant lateral crustal movement, allowing alternative models and mechanisms for lineament formation to be discussed, as well as plausible lithospheric and crustal models. The question as to whether any of the water-ice layer has been, or currently is, liquid, is also treated in light of the evidence obtained.

Schenk, Paul M.↗
NASA NTRS1989

Thermal state of an ice shell on Europa

The thickness of the ice shell presently hypothesized for Europa, which is decoupled from a silicate core by a liquid water layer, is calculated as a function of colatitude and longitude under suitable assumptions for two plausible ice rheology behaviors: that of Maxwell type, and that of generalized flow-law rheology. Due to the dissipation rate's pronounced temperature dependence, virtually all tidal dissipation is found to concentrate in the lowest few kilometers of the shell. While for some parameter choices an insulating regolith that raises the near-surface temperature by more than a few tens of degrees C may stabilize the shell against polar wander, a modest regolith may enhance the probability of such wander's occurrence through the reduction of the shell's retarding friction.

Ojakangas, Gregory W.↗
NASA NTRS1989

Polar wander of an ice shell on Europa

The present consideration of a hypothesized ice shell around Europa, which is decoupled from the silicate core by a liquid water layer and possesses a spatially varying thermal equilibrium thickness profile, proceeds through the development of equations for variations in the inertia tensor of a body when second-harmonic-degree topography is added to the crustal base. Attention is given to a realistic model in which the shell and ocean are assumed to undergo reorientations as a single entity independently of the core, but subject to viscous dissipation within the shell. Shell friction is in this case noted to preclude polar wander, unless a low conductivity regolith increases the near-surface temperature by a few tens of degrees C; the ice beneath the regolith would then behave viscously on the time-scale of polar wander.

Ojakangas, Gregory W.↗
NASA NTRS1990

Chaotic motion of Europa and Ganymede and the Ganymede-Callisto dichotomy

Europa and Ganymede may have undergone an episode of chaotic motion before the establishment of the current Laplace resonance involving the three inner GAlilean satellites. During this episode, the orbital eccentricities of both satellites may have increased dramatically. As a result, the mechanical stresses due to tidal deformation of the satellites' icy lithospheres may have been large enough to result in extensive fracturing, and tidal heating may have melted water ice in the mantles of both satellites, triggering the geological activity that has modified their surfaces since the heavy cratering period. The tidal effects on Ganymede during this episode provide an explanation of the dichotomy between it and Callisto, which have similar bulk properties but very different geological histories.

Tittemore, William C.↗
NASA NTRS1991

Observations of Mars, Uranus, Neptune, Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto at a wavelength of 2.66 mm

An accurate thermal model of Mars is presently used as a calibrator for 2.66-mm brightness temperature observations of Uranus, Neptune, and the Galilean satellites. While the measurements for Io, Europa, and Callisto, are consistent with thermal models of the lunar type, Ganymede is found to be anomalous. It appears that the near surface of Ganymede differs from that of the other satellites in some unknown fashion, perhaps by scattering more strongly at short wavelengths.

Muhleman, Duane O.↗
NASA NTRS1992

The effect of magnetospheric ion bombardment on the reflectance of Europa's surface

Laboratory investigations have been conducted to ascertain the role of sulphur ion implantation on differences in the reflectivity of the leading and trailing atmospheres of Europa in the visible and UV ranges. Under the laboratory conditions tested, neither S-implantation nor SO2 deposition can account for the general 'reddening' of the trailing hemisphere in the UV, relative to the leading hemisphere; this feature has been shown to be producible by fast penetrating ions.

Sack, N. J.↗
NASA NTRS1995

Surface Textural Properties of Icy Satellites: A Comparison between Europa and Rhea

Solar phase curves for Rhea are presented using new telescopic opposition data along with Voyager imaging observations. Two viable solutions were found to Hapke's model which was used to describe this phase curve. The porosity derived from the model's opposition parameters show that the optically active portion of Rhea's regolith has a porosity between 80 and 95 percent, which is slightly lower than the porosity seen on Europa and higher than the porosity measured for the Moon using similar methods. The macroscopic roughness is comparable to that measured by Vebiscer and Veverka for Rhea. The single particle scattering functions found in this study are predominantly forward scattering, which contradicts the results of Vebiscer and Veverka.

Domingue, D. L.↗
NASA NTRS1997

Galileo Science Update Europa Unveiled

A five person panel discuss newly imaged photographs of the surface of Jupiter's satellite Europa. In the discussion the topics that are covered are: surface features, ice and water formation, erosion, volcanism, thermal dissipation, crustal spreading, plate tectonics, impact sites, exobiology, and life.The run time on this video is 49:48 the air date is 1/17/97.

Source record↗
NASA NTRS2000

MALDI for Europa Planetary Science and Exobiology

TOF MS for Europa landed science can identify small molecules of the cryosphere and complex biomolecules upwelling from a subsurface water ocean. A matrix-assisted laser-desorption ionization (MALDI) testbed for cryo-ice mixtures is being developed.

Wdowiak, T. J.↗
NASA NTRS2001

Cratering Rates on Europa

We use numerical simulations of the orbital evolution of ecliptic comets and the observed history of close encounters with Jupiter to estimate the rate comets crater Europa. Additional information is contained in the original extended abstract.

Zahnle, K. J.↗
NASA NTRS2001

On the Clustering of Europa's Small Craters

We analyze the spatial distribution of Europa's small craters and find that many are too tightly clustered to result from random, primary impacts. Additional information is contained in the original extended abstract.

Bierhaus, E. B.↗
NASA NTRS2001

Tidal and Librational Energetics of Europa

The energetics of Europa are usually considered only in the context of eccentricity driven tides. We note that the existence of differential librations, and of a finite obliquity, both contribute significantly to the energy budget. Additional information is contained in the original extended abstract.

Bills, B. G.↗
NASA NTRS2001

Discovery of Soft X-Ray Emission from Io, Europa and the Io Plasma Torus

The Chandra X-ray Observatory observed the Jovian system for about 24 hours on 25-26 Nov 1999 with the Advanced CCD Imaging Spectrometer (ACIS), in support of the Galileo flyby of Io, and for about 10 hours on 18 Dec 2000 with the imaging array of the High Resolution Camera (HRC-I), in support of the Cassini flyby of Jupiter. Analysis of these data have revealed soft (0.25--2 keV) x-ray emission from the moons Io and Europa, probably Ganymede, and from the Io Plasma Torus (IPT). Bombardment by energetic (greater than 10 keV) H, O, and S ions from the region of the IPT seems the likely source of the x-ray emission from the Galilean moons. According to our estimates, fluorescent x-ray emission excited by solar x-rays is about an order of magnitude too weak even during flares from the active Sun to account for the observed x-ray flux from the IPT. Charge-exchange processes, previously invoked to explain Jupiter's x-ray aurora and cometary x-ray emission, and ion stripping by dust grains both fall by orders of magnitude. On the other hand, we calculate that bremsstrahlung emission of soft X-rays from non-thermal electrons in the few hundred to few thousand eV range accounts for roughly one third of the observed x-ray flux from the IPT. Extension of the far ultraviolet (FUV) IPT spectrum likely also contributes.

Elsner, R. F.↗