ERC Consolidator Grant · 2024
Icy moons with subsurface oceans in the outer solar are prime targets in the search for extraterrestrial life. Among these bodies, the subsurface ocean of Saturn’s moon Enceladus has a high astrobiological potential. From south polar fissures in its icy crust, Enceladus expels previously dissolved and suspended subsurface ocean material into space in the form of ice grains and plume gas. Until 2017, before the end of the space mission, mass spectrometers aboard the Cassini-Huygens spacecraft orbiting Saturn sampled and analyzed Enceladus subsurface material during several flybys. The analysis of Cassini’s mass spectrometer data obtained from the plume material suggested a diverse inventory…
From the public funding record at EU CORDIS. Describes the funded project, not the reviews below.