The 2008 Summer School program will be focussed on the exploration
of icy worlds orbiting the giant planets of our Solar System. These
satellites are important astrobiology targets in the exploration plans of
space agencies as refl ected in the successes of the Galileo mission to
Jupiter and the Cassini-Huygens mission to Saturn.
The study of the icy worlds provides an interesting and different
astrobiological perspective than the study of Mars, a terrestrial
planet whose characteristics are more similar to our own planetary
environment. In contrast, the icy worlds of the outer solar system
offer compositions and processes distinct from those of the terrestrial
planets.
The priority for exploring icy worlds derives from indications that
they can develop potentially habitable environments, or ones in
which prebiotic chemistry may occur. Special outstanding examples
are: Europa, which shows evidence for a water ocean in its interior,
probably in contact with a rocky substrate which could provide heat
and chemical compounds; Enceladus, which may also have some
subsurface water, and which is the source of geysers spewing material
into space; and Titan, which exhibits a methane hydrologic cycle and
an atmosphere similar in some ways to that thought to have been
present on the primitive Earth. Some of these icy worlds have been
very active, and as the examples given illustrate, some still are. This
activity is manifested in resurfacing by tectonism and volcanism to
form geological structures sometimes different from and sometimes
strikingly reminiscent of those on Earth. These structures are indicators
of the planetary energy sources that are requisite for developing
-
Cassini Flyby of Enceladus NASA/JPL
-
Saturn and its Small Icy Worlds – Torrence Johnson, NASA-JPL, USA
-
Astrobiology of Titan and Enceladus – François Raulin, Universités Paris, France
-
Astrobiology of Europa – Daniel Prieur, Université de Brest, France
-
Jupiter and its Moons – Michel Blanc, Ecole Polytechnique, France
-
Europa and the Galilean Moons – Kevin Hand, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, USA
-
Mission Development – Álvaro Giménez Cañete, Centro de Astrobiología, Spain
-
NAI Research on Icy Worlds – Carl Pilcher, NASA Astrobiology Institute, USA
-
Synthetic Life – Juan Pérez Mercader, Centro de Astrobiología, Spain
-
Plus Round Table Discussions, Student Projects, Night Sky Observations, and a half-day Field Trip to a nearby K-T Boundary Section