This session focuses on outstanding questions on the environments of the moons of outer planets: including the neutral particles (e.g. torii, atmospheres, exospheres, and plumes), electromagnetic fields, dust and plasma, and the interaction of the moons with their environments. Abstracts on all outer planet moons are welcome, including those of Jupiter and Saturn (e.g. Europa, Ganymede, Enceladus, Rhea, and Titan) and the not-well explored moons of Neptune and Uranus.
Prior developments in this field have lead to significant discoveries (e.g. subsurface oceans) and have given rise to new open questions (e.g. active plumes on Europa). Considering the unprecedented opportunity to study these subjects with the upcoming ESA’s JUICE and NASA’s Europa Clipper missions it is essential to bring together the space community on this topic. This session is important to maximize the scientific output of past and current missions, in support of the future missions.
The different topics include (but are not limited to): active processes (e.g. plumes and volcanoes), moon-magnetosphere interaction, magnetic field studies to characterize sub-surface oceans, surface weathering of the moons, neutral exosphere and ionosphere, preparatory studies for future missions, supporting laboratory studies, simulation studies and observations (ground-based/remote/in-situ). Missions of particular relevance include Galileo, Voyager, Cassini-Huygens, Hisaki, Juno, JUICE and Europa Clipper.
Europlanet Science Congress 2020
Virtual meeting
21 September – 9 October 2020
Europlanet Science Congress 2020
Virtual meeting
21 September – 9 October 2020