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A link between exposures of water (H${}_{2}$O) ice with traces of an ammoniated compound (e.g., a salt) and the probable effusion of a water-rich cryolava onto the surface of Pluto has been established in previous investigations (Dalle Ore et al. 2019). Here we present the results from the application of a machine learning technique and a radiative transfer model to a water-ice-rich exposure in Kiladze area and surroundings on Pluto. We demonstrate the presence of an ammoniated material suggestive of an undetermined but relatively recent emplacement event. Kiladze lies in a region of Pluto's surface that is structurally distinct from that of the areas where similar evidence points to cryovolcanic activity at some undetermined time in the planet's history. Although the Kiladze depression superficially resembles an impact crater, a close inspection of higher-resolution images indicates that the feature lacks the typical morphology of a crater. Here we suggest that a cryolava water carrying an ammoniated component may have come onto the surface at the Kiladze area via one or more volcanic collapses, as in a resurgent volcanic caldera complex. Large regions east of Kiladze also exhibit the presence of H${}_{2}$O ice and have graben-like structures suggestive of cryovolcanic activity, but with existing data are not amenable to the detailed search that might reveal an ammoniated component., Comment: 28 pages, 11 figures, submitted to Icarus

The geologically active south pole of Enceladus generates a plume of micron-sized particles, which likely form Saturn's tenuous E-ring extending from the orbit of Mimas to Titan. Interactions between these particles and satellites have been suggested, though only as very thin surficial phenomena. We scrutinize high-resolution images with a newly developed numerical shape model of Helene and find that the leading hemisphere of Helene is covered by thick deposits of E-ring particles, which occasionally collapse to form gully-like depressions. The depths of the resultant gullies and near-absence of small craters on the leading hemisphere indicate that the deposit is tens to hundreds of meters thick. The ages of the deposits are less than several tens of My, which coincides well with similar deposits found on Telesto and Calypso. Our findings as well as previous theoretical work collectively indicate that the cryovolcanic activity currently occurring on Enceladus is ephemeral., Comment: 23 pages 6 figures

Evidence for plumes of water on Europa has previously been found using the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) using two different observing techniques. Roth et al. (2014) found line emission from the dissociation products of water. Sparks et al. (2016) found evidence for off-limb continuum absorption as Europa transited Jupiter. Here, we present a new transit observation of Europa that shows a second event at the same location as a previous plume candidate from Sparks et al. (2016), raising the possibility of a consistently active source of erupting material on Europa. This conclusion is bolstered by comparison with a nighttime thermal image from the Galileo Photopolarimeter-Radiometer (PPR) which shows a thermal anomaly at the same location, within the uncertainties (Spencer et al. 1999). The anomaly has the highest observed brightness temperature on the Europa nightside. If heat flow from a subsurface liquid water reservoir causes the thermal anomaly, its depth is ~1.8-2 km, under simple modeling assumptions, consistent with scenarios in which a liquid water reservoir has formed within a thick ice shell. Models that favor thin regions within the ice shell that connect directly to the ocean, however, cannot be excluded, nor modifications to surface thermal inertia by subsurface activity. Alternatively, vapor deposition surrounding an active vent could increase the thermal inertia of the surface and cause the thermal anomaly. This candidate plume region may offer a promising location for an initial characterization of Europa's internal water and ice and for seeking evidence of Europa's habitability. ~, Comment: 14 pages, 2 figures

The Pluto-Charon system provides a broad variety of constraints on planetary formation, composition, chemistry, and evolution. Pluto was the first body to be discovered in what is now known as the Kuiper belt, its orbit ultimately becoming a major clue that the giant planets underwent substantial orbital migration early in Solar System history. This migration has been linked to an early instability in the orbits of the giant planets and the formation of the Kuiper belt itself, from an ancestral trans-Neptunian planetesimal disk that included Pluto. Pluto-Charon is emblematic of what are now recognized as small or dwarf planets. Far from being a cold, dead, battered icy relic, Pluto displays evidence of a complex geological history, with ongoing processes including tectonism, cryovolcanism, solid-state convection, glacial flow, atmospheric circulation, surface-atmosphere volatile exchange, aeolian processes, and atmospheric photochemistry, microphysics, and haze formation. Despite Pluto's relatively modest scale, the combination of original accretional heat, long-term internal radiogenic heat release, and external solar forcing, when combined with sufficiently volatile (and thus mobile) materials, yields an active world. Pluto may have inherited a large organic mass fraction during accretion, which may responsible, in part, for its surface and atmospheric volatiles. Charon, Pluto's major moon, displays evidence of extensive early tectonism and cryovolcanism. Dwarf planets are thus truly planetary in terms of satellite systems and geological and atmospheric complexity (if not ongoing activity). What they may lack in mass is made up in number, and the majority of the Solar System's dwarf planets remain undiscovered., Comment: 94 pages, 13 figures; will appear as a chapter/conference proceedings in the Space Science Series volume "The Pluto System After New Horizons," S.A. Stern et al., University of Arizona Press, Tucson, AZ

In data from the New Horizons encounter with Pluto in 2015, attention was called to a crater named Kiladze and its surroundings because of the water ice spectral properties, which contrast with the primarily methane ice regional surface composition. The water ice carries the spectral signature of an ammoniated compound, similar to that seen at two other sites on Pluto where cryovolcanism has been identified. The faulted structure of Kiladze, including shaping by numerous collapse pits and the distorted shape of the crater, are compatible with the surroundings in Hayabusa Terra, east of Spunik Planitia. They are further compatible with an interpretation as a resurgent caldera formed during a past era of active cryovolcanic period that appears to be significantly more recent than the overall age of the planet's surface, possibly in the last several million years. In view of the size of the caldera and the large scale of the surrounding distribution of water ice, we propose that Kiladze is a "supervolcano" in which one or more explosive events has scattered more than ~1000 km$^{3}$ of icy cryomagma erupted from the interior onto the surface., Comment: 22 pages, 6 figures, submitted to Icarus

Titan, Saturn's largest moon, has a plethora of organic compounds in the atmosphere and on the surface that interact with each other. Cryominerals such as co-crystals may influence the geologic processes and chemical composition of Titan's surface, which in turn informs our understanding of how Titan may have evolved, how the surface is continuing to change, as well as the extent of Titan's habitability. Previous work has shown that a pyridine:acetylene (1:1) co-crystal forms under specific temperatures and experimental conditions; however, this has not yet been demonstrated under Titan-relevant conditions. Our work here demonstrates that the pyridine:acetylene co-crystal is stable from 90 K, Titan's average surface temperature, up to 180 K under an atmosphere of N2. In particular, the co-crystal forms via liquid-solid interactions within minutes upon mixing of the constituents at 150 K, as evidenced by distinct, new Raman bands and band shifts. XRD results indicate moderate anisotropic thermal expansion (about 0.5% - 1.1%) along the three principal axes between 90-150 K. Additionally, the co-crystal is detectable after being exposed to liquid ethane, implying stability in a residual ethane "wetting" scenario on Titan. These results suggest that the pyridine:acetylene co-crystal could form in specific geologic contexts on Titan that allow for warm environments in which liquid pyridine could persist, and as such, this cryomineral may preserve evidence of impact, cryovolcanism, or subsurface transport in surface materials., Comment: 12 pages, 9 figures, 5 tables

Some of the major discoveries of the recent Cassini-Huygens mission have put Titan and Enceladus firmly on the Solar System map. The mission has revolutionised our view of Solar System satellites, arguably matching their scientific importance with that of their host planet. While Cassini-Huygens has made big surprises in revealing Titan's organically rich environment and Enceladus' cryovolcanism, the mission's success naturally leads us to further probe these findings. We advocate the acknowledgement of Titan and Enceladus science as highly relevant to ESA's long-term roadmap, as logical follow-on to Cassini-Huygens. In this White Paper, we will outline important science questions regarding these satellites and identify the science themes we recommend ESA cover during the Voyage 2050 planning cycle. Addressing these science themes would make major advancements to the present knowledge we have about the Solar System, its formation, evolution, and likelihood that other habitable environments exist outside the Earth's biosphere.

Systematic geomorphological mapping and detailed landform analysis using the highest resolution images obtained by the New Horizons spacecraft reveal the presence of a range of differentiable terrains on Charon, the largest moon of Pluto, that were not examined in detail by the early studies. The most important findings of our work include (1) truncation and omission of large craters (diameters > 30-40 km) and their crater rim ridges along the eastern edges of several north-trending, eastward-convex, arcuate ranges in Oz Terra, (2) lobate ridges, lobate knob trains, and lobate aprons resembling glacial moraine landforms on Earth, (3) dendritic channel systems containing hanging valleys, and (4) locally striated surfaces defined by parallel ridges, knob trains, and grooves that are > 40-50 km in length. The above observations and the topographic dichotomy of Charon' s encountered hemisphere can be explained by a landscape-evolution model that involves (i) a giant impact that created the Vulcan Planitia basin and the extensional fault zone along its northern rim, (ii) a transient atmosphere capable of driving N2-ice glacial erosion of the water-ice bedrock and transporting water-ice debris to sedimentary basins, (iii) regional glacial erosion and transport of earlier emplaced impact ejecta deposits from the highlands of Oz Terra into the lowland basin of Vulcan Planitia, (iv) syn-glaciation north-trending thrusting interpreted to have been induced by Charon' s despinning, and (v) the development of a water-ice debris cover layer over subsurface N2 ice below Vulcan Planitia during global deglaciation. The infilling of the Vulcan Planitia could have been accompanied by cryovolcanism. The extensive modification of impact craters means that the crater size-frequency distributions from Charon should serve only as a lower bound when used to test the formation mechanism of Kuiper belt objects., Comment: 83 pages, 13 figures

The JUpiter Icy moons Explorer (JUICE) will investigate Ganymede's and Callisto's surfaces and subsurfaces from orbit to explore the geologic processes that have shaped and altered their surfaces by impact, tectonics, possible cryovolcanism, space weathering due to micrometeorites, radiation and charged particles as well as explore the structure and properties of the icy crust and liquid shell (Grasset et al., 2013). The best possible synergy of the JUICE instruments is required to answer the major science objective of this mission and to fully exploit the potential of the JUICE mission. Therefore, the JUICE team is aiming to define high priority targets on both Ganymede's and Callisto's surfaces to support the coordination of the planning activities by the individual instrument teams. Based on the science objectives of the JUICE mission and the most recent knowledge of Ganymede's and Callisto's geologic evolution we propose a collection of Regions of Interest (RoIs), which characterize surface features and terrain types representing important traces of geologic processes, from past and/or present cryovolcanic and tectonic activity to space weathering processes, which are crucial to understand the geologic evolution of Ganymede and Callisto. The proposed evaluation of RoIs is based on their scientific importance as well as on the opportunities and conditions to observe them during the currently discussed mission profile., Astrodynamics & Space Missions

Some of the major discoveries of the recent Cassini-Huygens mission have put Titan and Enceladus firmly on the Solar System map. The mission has revolutionised our view of Solar System satellites, arguably matching their scientific importance with that of their host planet. While Cassini-Huygens has made big surprises in revealing Titan’s organically rich environment and Enceladus’ cryovolcanism, the mission’s success naturally leads us to further probe these findings. We advocate the acknowledgement of Titan and Enceladus science as highly relevant to ESA’s long-term roadmap, as logical follow-on to Cassini-Huygens. In this White Paper, we will outline important science questions regarding these satellites and identify the science themes we recommend ESA cover during the Voyage 2050 planning cycle. Addressing these science themes would make major advancements to the present knowledge we have about the Solar System, its formation, evolution, and likelihood that other habitable environments exist outside the Earth’s biosphere.

Ceres is the largest body in the Main Belt, and it is characterized by a large abundance of water ice in its interior. This feature is suggested by its relatively low bulk density (2162 kg m$^{-3}$), while its partial differentiation into a rocky core and icy crust is suggested by several geological and geochemical features: minerals and salts produced by aqueous alteration, icy patches on the surface, lobate morphology interpreted as surface flows. In this work we explore how the composition can influence the characteristics of thermal convection in the crust of Ceres. Our results suggest that the onset of thermal convection is difficult and when it occurs it is short lived and this could imply that Ceres preserved deep liquid until present, as recent suggested by the work of Castillo-Rogez et al.. Moreover, cryovolcanism could be driven by diapirism (chemical convection) rather than thermal convection.

The surface of Europa is geologically young and shows signs of current activity. Studying it from a photometric point of view gives us insight on its physical state. We used a collection of 57 images from Voyager's Imaging Science System and New Horizons' LOng Range Reconnaissance Imager for which we corrected the geometric metadata and projected every pixel to compute photometric information (reflectance and geometry of observation). We studied 20 areas scattered across the surface of Europa and estimated their photometric behavior using the Hapke radiative transfer model and a Bayesian framework in order to estimate their microphysical state. We have found that most of them were consistent with the bright backscattering behavior of Europa, already observed at a global scale, indicating the presence of grains maturated by space weathering. However, we have identified very bright areas showing a narrow forward scattering possibly indicating the presence of fresh deposits that could be attributed to recent cryovolcanism or jets. Overall, we showed that the photometry of Europa's surface is more diverse than previously thought and so is its microphysical state., Comment: 46 pages, 17 figures, 3 tables

The Jovian moon Europa is a prime target for astrobiology. A global subsurface water ocean and a geologically young surface provide evidence of an active planetary body with a potential deep habitable environment. Tectonism and cryomagmatism are both agents of resurfacing, with structures on the surface spatially related to reddish non-icy materials that could represent crystallized volatile and salt-rich fluids from the interior, possibly from the ocean or shallower aqueous bodies. Cryomagmatism could therefore be a mechanism for exposing the underlying liquid layers to the surface and could hold paramount importance for understanding the physical and chemical evolution of fluids during their ascent and emplacement and their connection with geological features at the surface. With these premises, we perform a set of laboratory experiments simulating the evolution of different fluids under the conditions in Europa's crust. These experiments allow us to constrain the physico-chemical and textural changes experienced by the different fluids and solids that are potentially emplaced within the icy crust and determine how they are affected by such secondary processes as reheating, melting, and ultimate recrystallization (e.g., in response to the emplacement of a second diapir close to the first one or tidal reheating). Based on these experimental results, we explore the connection of cryomagmas and their evolution near the surface to geologic features present on Europa's surface, such as pits, uplifts/domes, and microchaos regions, as well as the link with explosive cryovolcanism responsible for putative plumes at Europa.

Some of the major discoveries of the recent Cassini-Huygens mission have put Titan and Enceladus firmly on the Solar System map. The mission has revolutionised our view of Solar System satellites, arguably matching their scientific importance with that of their planet. While Cassini-Huygens has made big surprises in revealing Titan's organically rich environment and Enceladus' cryovolcanism, the mission's success naturally leads us to further probe these findings. We advocate the acknowledgement of Titan and Enceladus science as highly relevant to ESA's long-term roadmap, as logical follow-on to Cassini-Huygens. In this white paper, we will outline important science questions regarding these satellites and identify the pertinent science themes we recommend ESA cover during the Voyage 2050 planning cycle. Addressing these science themes would make major advancements to the present knowledge we have about the Solar System, its formation, evolution and likelihood that other habitable environments exist outside the Earth's biosphere., Comment: White paper submitted in response to Voyage 2050 long-term plan in the ESA Science Programme

The goal of Project GAUSS is to return samples from the dwarf planet Ceres. Ceres is the most accessible ocean world candidate and the largest reservoir of water in the inner solar system. It shows active cryovolcanism and hydrothermal activities in recent history that resulted in minerals not found in any other planets to date except for Earth's upper crust. The possible occurrence of recent subsurface ocean on Ceres and the complex geochemistry suggest possible past habitability and even the potential for ongoing habitability. Aiming to answer a broad spectrum of questions about the origin and evolution of Ceres and its potential habitability, GAUSS will return samples from this possible ocean world for the first time. The project will address the following top-level scientific questions: 1) What is the origin of Ceres and the origin and transfer of water and other volatiles in the inner solar system? 2) What are the physical properties and internal structure of Ceres? What do they tell us about the evolutionary and aqueous alteration history of icy dwarf planets? 3) What are the astrobiological implications of Ceres? Was it habitable in the past and is it still today? 4) What are the mineralogical connections between Ceres and our current collections of primitive meteorites? GAUSS will first perform a high-resolution global remote sensing investigation, characterizing the geophysical and geochemical properties of Ceres. Candidate sampling sites will then be identified, and observation campaigns will be run for an in-depth assessment of the candidate sites. Once the sampling site is selected, a lander will be deployed on the surface to collect samples and return them to Earth in cryogenic conditions that preserves the volatile and organic composition as well as the original physical status as much as possible., Comment: Section 3.4 revised; List of team members updated; Typos corrected

The dwarf planet Ceres's outer crust is a complex, heterogeneous mixture of ice, clathrates, salts and silicates. Numerous large domes on Ceres's surface indicate a degree of geological activity. These domes have been attributed to cryovolcanism, but that is difficult to reconcile with Ceres's small size and lack of long-lived heat sources. Here we alternatively propose that Ceres's domes form by solid-state flow within the compositionally heterogeneous crust, a mechanism directly analogous to salt tectonics on Earth. We use numerical simulations to illustrate that differential loading of a crust with compositional heterogeneity on a scale of tens of kilometres can produce dome-like features of scale similar to those observed. The mechanism requires the presence of low-viscosity and low-density, possibly ice-rich, material in the upper 1-10 km of the subsurface. Such substantial regional heterogeneity in Ceres's crustal composition is consistent with observations from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Dawn mission. We conclude that deformation analogous to that in terrestrial salt tectonics is a viable alternative explanation for the observed surface morphologies, and is consistent with Ceres being both cold and geologically active.

The dwarf planet Ceres's outer crust is a complex, heterogeneous mixture of ice, clathrates, salts and silicates. Numerous large domes on Ceres's surface indicate a degree of geological activity. These domes have been attributed to cryovolcanism, but that is difficult to reconcile with Ceres's small size and lack of long-lived heat sources. Here we alternatively propose that Ceres's domes form by solid-state flow within the compositionally heterogeneous crust, a mechanism directly analogous to salt tectonics on Earth. We use numerical simulations to illustrate that differential loading of a crust with compositional heterogeneity on a scale of tens of kilometres can produce dome-like features of scale similar to those observed. The mechanism requires the presence of low-viscosity and low-density, possibly ice-rich, material in the upper 1-10 km of the subsurface. Such substantial regional heterogeneity in Ceres's crustal composition is consistent with observations from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Dawn mission. We conclude that deformation analogous to that in terrestrial salt tectonics is a viable alternative explanation for the observed surface morphologies, and is consistent with Ceres being both cold and geologically active.

Cryovolcanism has played an important role in the geological histories of many icy satellites. Cryovolcanism, like the more familiar silicate volcanism on Earth and the other terrestrial planets, takes many forms. Many individual cryovolcanic landforms are morphologically surprisingly similar to terrestrial volcanic landforms and can be explained with similar mechanisms. However, assemblages of cryovolcanic, tectonic, and impact structures form unique and varied landscapes quite alien in their collective expression. Many variables can affect the cryovolcanic style of a satellite but none more so than cryolava composition. This work considers the compositional variable in considerable detail. This work summarises existing knowledge of phase equilibria and physical properties of cosmochemically relevant unary, binary, and multi-component chemical systems, and where published knowledge was found lacking, the author presents his own measurements of the physical chemistry of volatile mixtures. The author then takes the reader on a brief tour of cryovolcanic landscapes, and applies knowledge of the physical chemistry of volatile mixtures to problems of cryovolcanological interest. Aqueous cryolavas may range in composition from salt-water brines to cryogenic ammonia-water-rich multi-component solutions possibly involving methanol, ammonium sulfide, alkali chlorides, and many other potential components. Cryomagmatic distillation can greatly accentuate the importance of trace and minor constituents of icy satellites. The viscosities, densities, and other physical properties of these liquids vary considerably and depend sensitively on their exact compositions. These properties affect everything from cryovolcanic eruptive styles and landforms, to the way cryovolcanic crusts respond to tectonic stresses. It is believed that the compositional variable is directly or indirectly implicated in a wide variety of geomorphic aspects of contrast among the icy satellites. Thus, even th

The polarimetry of the light scattered by planetary surfaces is a powerful tool to provide constraints on their microstructure. To improve the interpretation of polarimetric data from icy surfaces, we have developed the POLarimeter for ICE Samples (POLICES) complementing the measurement facilities of the Ice Laboratory at the University of Bern. The new setup uses a high precision Stokes polarimeter to measure the degree of polarization in the visible light scattered by surfaces at moderate phase angles (from 1.5 to 30{\deg}). We present the photometric and polarimetric phase curves measured on various surfaces made of pure water ice particles having well-controlled size and shape (spherical, crushed, frost). The results show how the amplitude and the shape of the negative polarization branch change with the particles sizes and the degree of metamorphism of the ice. We found that fresh frost formed by water condensation on cold surfaces has a phase curve characterized by resonances (Mie oscillations) indicating that frost embryos are transparent micrometer-sized particles with a narrow size distribution and spherical shape. Comparisons of these measurements with polarimetric observations of the icy satellites of the Solar System suggest that Europa is possibly covered by relatively coarser (~40-400 {\mu}m) and more sintered grains than Enceladus and Rhea, more likely covered by frost-like particles of few micrometers in average. The great sensitivity of polarization to grain size and degree of sintering makes it an ideal tool to detect hints of ongoing processes on icy planetary surfaces, such as cryovolcanism., Comment: 36 pages, 1 table, 11 figures, 2 data sets, accepted in Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets

In this work we investigated the longitudinal (zonal) variability of H$_2$O and ammonia (NH$_3$) hydrate ices on the surface of Charon through analysis of the 1.65 $\mu$m and 2.21 $\mu$m absorption features, respectively. Near-infrared spectra presented here were obtained between 2015-07-14 and 2015-08-30 UT with the OSIRIS integral field spectrograph on Keck I. Spectra centered on six different sub-observer longitudes were obtained through the Hbb (1.473-1.803 $\mu$m) and Kbb (1.965-2.381 $\mu$m) filters. Gaussian functions were fit to the aforementioned bands to obtain information on band center, band depth, full width at half maximum, and band area. The shift in the band center of the temperature-dependent 1.65 $\mu$m feature was used to calculate the H$_2$O ice temperature. The mean temperature of the ice on the observable portion of Charon's surface is 45$\pm$14 K and we report no statistically significant variations in temperature across the surface. We hypothesize that the crystalline and amorphous phases of water ice reached equilibrium over 3.5 Gyr ago, with thermal recrystallization balancing the effects of irradiation amorphization. We do not believe that cryovolcanism is necessary to explain the presence of crystalline water ice on the surface of Charon. Absorption from ammonia species is detected between 12$^{\circ}$ and 290$^{\circ}$, in agreement with results from New Horizons. Ongoing diffusion of ammonia through the rocky mantle and upper layer of water ice is one possible mechanism for maintaining its presence in Charon's surface ice. Reduced Charon spectra corrected for telluric and solar absorption are available as supplementary online material., Comment: 31 pages, 10 figures, 3 tables

We present a measurement of H2O ice crystallinity on the surface of trans-neptunian objects (TNOs) with near-infrared narrow-band imaging. The newly developed photometric technique allows us to efficiently determine the strength of an 1.65-um absorption feature in crystalline H2O ice. Our data for three large objects, Haumea, Quaoar, and Orcus, which are known to contain crystalline H2O ice on the surfaces, show a reasonable result with high fractions of the crystalline phase. It can also be pointed out that if the H2O-ice grain size is larger than ~20 um, the crystallinities of these objects are obviously below 1.0, which suggest the presence of the amorphous phase. Especially, Orcus exhibits a high abundance of amorphous H2O ice compared to Haumea and Quaoar, possibly indicating a correlation between bulk density of the bodies and surface crystallization degree. We also found the presence of crystalline H2O ice on Typhon and 2008 AP129, both of which are smaller than the minimum size limit for inducing cryovolcanism as well as a transition from amorphous to crystalline through the thermal evolution due to the decay of long-lived isotopes., Comment: 31 pages, 7 figures, 6 tables, accepted for publication in ApJ

Drainage networks on Titan, Earth, and Mars provide the only known examples of non-volcanic fluvial activity in our solar system. The drainage networks on Titan are apparently the result of a methane-ethane cycle similar to Earth's water cycle. The scarcity of impact craters and the uneven distribution of fluvial dissection on Titan suggest that the surface may be relatively young. The purpose of this study is to assess the importance of erosion relative to other plausible mechanisms of resurfacing such as tectonic deformation, cryovolcanism, or deposition of aerosols. We present a new method, based on a measure of drainage network shape known as the width function, to estimate cumulative erosion into an initially rough surface. We calibrate this method with a numerical landscape evolution model, and successfully test the method by applying it to river networks on Earth with different exhumation histories. To estimate erosional exhumation on Titan, we mapped fluvial networks in all Synthetic Aperture Radar swaths obtained by the Cassini spacecraft through T71. Application of our method to the most completely imaged drainage networks indicates that for two of four regions analyzed, Titan's fluvial networks have produced only minor erosional modification of the surface. For the best-constrained region in the northern high latitudes, we find that fluvial networks reflect spatially averaged erosion of more than 0.4% but less than 9% of the initial topographic relief. This result implies either a recent, non-fluvial resurfacing event or long-term fluvial incision rates that are slow relative to the rate of resurfacing., United States. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Cassini Data Analysis Program Award)

We examine a large collection of low resolution near-infrared spectra of Kuiper belt objects and centaurs in an attempt to understand the presence of water ice in the Kuiper belt. We find that water ice on the surface of these objects occurs in three separate manners: (1) Haumea family members uniquely show surfaces of nearly pure water ice, presumably a consequence of the fragmentation of the icy mantle of a larger differentiated proto-Haumea; (2) large objects with absolute magnitudes of $H<3$ (and a limited number to H=4.5) have surface coverings of water ice - perhaps mixed with ammonia - that appears to be related to possibly ancient cryovolcanism on these large objects; and (3) smaller KBOs and centaurs which are neither Haumea family members nor cold-classical KBOs appear to divide into two families (which we refer to as "neutral" and "red"), each of which is a mixture of a common nearly-neutral component and either a slightly red or very red component that also includes water ice. A model suggesting that the difference between neutral and red objects is due to formation in an early compact solar system either inside or outside, respectively, of the ~20 AU methanol evaporation line is supported by the observation that methanol is only detected on the reddest objects, which are those which would be expected to have the most of the methanol containing mixture., Comment: AJ, in press

Objects in the Kuiper belt are small and far away thus difficult to study in detail even with the best telescopes available at earth. For much of the early history of the Kuiper belt, studies of the compositions of these objects were relegated to collections of moderate quality spectral and photometric data that remained difficult to interpret. Much early effort was put into simple correlations of surface colors and identifications of spectral features, but it was difficult to connect the observations to a larger understanding of the region. The last decade, however, has seen a blossoming in our understanding of the compositions of objects in the Kuiper belt. This blossoming is a product of the discoveries of larger -- and thus easier to study -- objects, continued dedication to the collection of a now quite large collection of high quality photometric and spectroscopic observations, and continued work at the laboratory and theoretical level. Today we now know of many processes which affect the surface compositions of objects in the Kuiper belt, including atmospheric loss, differentiation and cryovolcanism, radiation processing, the effects of giant impacts, and the early dynamical excitation of the Kuiper belt. We review the large quantity of data now available and attempt to build a comprehensive framework for understanding the surface compositions and their causes. In contrast to surface compositions, the bulk compositions of objects in the Kuiper belt remain poorly measured and even more poorly understood, but prospects for a deeper understanding of the formation of the the outer solar are even greater from this subject., Comment: 38 pages, 10 figures, to appear in Annual Reviews of Earth and Planetary Sciences

Saturn’s moon Titan represents a unique locale for studying prebiotic chemistry. Reactions occurring in its thick nitrogen-methane atmosphere produce a wide variety of carbon, hydrogen, and nitrogen containing organic molecules. If these molecules are exposed to liquid water, they may react further to produce oxygen-containing species, a key step in the formation of terrestrial biomolecules. On average, Titan's surface is too cold for liquid water. However, models indicate that melting caused by impacts and/or cryovolcanism may lead to its episodic availability. One possible cryovolcanic dome, Ganesa Macula, was identified in early observations by the Cassini spacecraft. In this work, I estimate the height and morphology of this feature using a synthetic aperture radar (SAR) image. I then use a thermal conduction code to calculate the freezing timescale for an initially liquid dome, yielding freezing timescales of ~10² - 10⁵ years. To determine how far aqueous organic chemistry can proceed in liquid water environments on Titan, I measure the rate coefficients of Titan analogue organic molecules ("tholins") with low temperature aqueous solutions to produce oxygenated species. These reactions display first-order kinetics with half-lives between 0.4 and 7 days at 273 K (in water) and between 0.3 and 14 days at 253 K (in 13 wt. % ammonia-water). Tholin hydrolysis in aqueous solutions is thus very fast compared to the freezing timescales of impact melts and volcanic sites on Titan, which take hundreds to thousands of years to freeze. The fast incorporation of oxygen, along with new chemistry made available by the introduction of ammonia, may lead to the formation of molecules of prebiotic interest in these transient liquid water environments. This chemistry makes impact craters and cryovolcanoes important targets for future missions to Titan.

2003 EL61 is the largest member of a group of TNOs with similar orbits and 'unique' spectra (neutral slope in the visible and the deepest water ice absorption bands ever observed in the TNb). Studying the composition of the surface of 2003 EL61 provides useful constrains on the origin of this particular group of TNOs and on the outer Solar system's history. We present visible and near-infrared spectra of 2003 EL61 obtained with the 4.2m WHT and the 3.6m TNG at the Roque de los Muchachos Observatory (Canary Islands, Spain). Near infrared spectra were obtained at different rotational phases covering almost one complete rotational period. Spectra are fitted using Hapke scattering models and constraints on the surface composition are derived. No significant variations in the spectral slope and in the depth of the water ice absorption bands at different rotational phases are evident, suggesting that the surface of 2003 EL61 is homogeneous. The scattering models show that a 1:1 intimate mixture of crystalline and amorphous water ice is the most probable composition for the surface of this TNO, and constrain the presence of other minor constituents to a maximum of 8% The derived composition suggests that: a) cryovolcanism is unlikely to be the main resurfacing process responsible for the high presence of water ice on the surface of these bodies; b) the surface is older than 10^8 yr. Any catastrophic event, like the collision suggested to be the origin of this population, had to happen at least 10^8 yr ago; c) the surface of 2003 EL61 is depleted of carbon chains. According to the orbital parameters of this population, this makes it a possible source of carbon-depleted Jupiter family comets., Comment: 9 pages, 7 graphs. Keywords: water ice, carbon-depleted, Kuiper Belt, astrochemistry, spectroscopy

Tholins are brownish, sticky residues formed by the energetic processing of mixtures of gases abundant in the cosmos, such as CH4, N2, and H2O, either with ultraviolet light or electrical discharge. This thesis describes investigations of the tholins produced by the processing of mixtures of N2 and CH4, as a model of photochemical processes occurring in the atmosphere of Titan. These compounds are mixed with liquid water during impacts or cryovolcanism, in melt pools which eventually freeze. The melt pools are interesting sites for astrobiological research, containing a wealth of organic material interacting over long time periods in a liquid water solvent. Studies of the near infrared reflectance spectrum and the fluorescent properties of the tholins are presented, yielding information on the composition of the tholins and a means of finding organic deposits on the surface of Titan. Tholin decomposition on heating is extensively investigated, partly to ascertain the utility of pyrolysis as a technique for tholin characterization. Tholins are found to undergo significant chemical change at temperatures as low as 100 °C, releasing large quantities of ammonia, while at higher temperatures, cyclizing and aromatizing reactions occur. Pyrolysis is thus not a good technique for the characterization of tholins. The development of two instruments for tholin characterization are also discussed: a gas chromatograph with an ultraviolet absorption detector, for functional group analysis of the tholins, and sensors designed for the determination of enantiomeric excess.

The Cassini spacecraft, observing the Saturnian system for over 13 years, discovered aspects of the planetary system that were previously unseen. One such discovery is the eruption of geysers (plumes) from the Tiger Stripes on the surface of the icy moon Enceladus. An unexpected liquid water ocean exists underneath Enceladus’ icy crust (Postberg et al. 2018). A consequence of this finding was the complete revision of the habitability of the Solar System. This liquid ocean is propagated through conduits within the crust, and forms plumes when it reaches the surface. The plume material is believed to accelerate supersonically through nozzle-like channels (Schmidt et al. 2008) before being ejected at high speeds from the plume vents. This thesis aims to improve the physical understanding of the interaction between the ocean, icy crust, and the plumes of Enceladus, by experimentally simulating such a plume in the wind tunnel laboratories of TU Delft, and monitoring and analyzing the dynamic physical processes taking place across the experimental setup. A physical analog, separated into regions simulating the ocean, crevasse, and vent of the plume mechanism, is monitored with pressure and temperature sensors, while plume particles are detected with optical tracing techniques. These observations lead to estimations of the vapor mass flow rate, the outflow Mach number, and the fraction of the plume mass that is condensed. It is found that the ocean conditions can be easily controlled through an adjustable heating power supply. The vapor flow generated by the boiling ocean becomes choked in the crevasse and can attain supersonic velocities. The thermodynamic conditions at the vent of the plume exhibit a greatly varying behavior suggesting that the combined effect of the crevasse geometry and the nucleation of vapor into liquid and icy particles results in considerable diversity in the plume characteristics. Thus, an isentropic description of the plume flow, Aerospace Engineering

Some of the major discoveries of the recent Cassini-Huygens mission have put Titan and Enceladus firmly on the Solar System map. The mission has revolutionised our view of Solar System satellites, arguably matching their scientific importance with that of their host planet. While Cassini-Huygens has made big surprises in revealing Titan's organically rich environment and Enceladus' cryovolcanism, the mission's success naturally leads us to further probe these findings. We advocate the acknowledgement of Titan and Enceladus science as highly relevant to ESA's long-term roadmap, as logical follow-on to Cassini-Huygens. In this White Paper, we will outline important science questions regarding these satellites and identify the science themes we recommend ESA cover during the Voyage 2050 planning cycle. Addressing these science themes would make major advancements to the present knowledge we have about the Solar System, its formation, evolution, and likelihood that other habitable environments exist outside the Earth's biosphere.

Some of the major discoveries of the recent Cassini-Huygens mission have put Titan and Enceladus firmly on the Solar System map. The mission has revolutionised our view of Solar System satellites, arguably matching their scientific importance with that of their host planet. While Cassini-Huygens has made big surprises in revealing Titan's organically rich environment and Enceladus' cryovolcanism, the mission's success naturally leads us to further probe these findings. We advocate the acknowledgement of Titan and Enceladus science as highly relevant to ESA's long-term roadmap, as logical follow-on to Cassini-Huygens. In this White Paper, we will outline important science questions regarding these satellites and identify the science themes we recommend ESA cover during the Voyage 2050 planning cycle. Addressing these science themes would make major advancements to the present knowledge we have about the Solar System, its formation, evolution, and likelihood that other habitable environments exist outside the Earth's biosphere.

Enceladus has a subsurface ocean in the South Pole that has been inferred due to the presence of water vapor and other molecules like molecular hydrogen and ammonia detected by the Cassini mission from the ejection of material through the plumes in that region. The chemical composition of this ocean could give some information about the evolutionary stage of the icy moon if its components are found to be similar with the aqueous chemistry of the primitive oceans on Earth during glacial periods. Here we present a comparative geochemical analysis between the ocean of Enceladus and the aqueous composition of the oceans on Earth during the Snowball Event, in order to figure out if there are similar species, how the interaction of the metabolic processes between them works and if, in the future, those molecules could evolve making possible the emergence of life.