{"id":184137,"date":"2024-03-01T17:25:55","date_gmt":"2024-03-01T23:25:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2024\/03\/exploring-ice-ocean-interactions-on-alien-moons"},"modified":"2024-03-01T17:25:55","modified_gmt":"2024-03-01T23:25:55","slug":"exploring-ice-ocean-interactions-on-alien-moons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2024\/03\/exploring-ice-ocean-interactions-on-alien-moons","title":{"rendered":"Exploring Ice-Ocean Interactions on Alien Moons"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a connection between the shape of the ice shell and the temperature in the ocean,\u201d said Dr. Britney Schmidt. \u201cThis is a new way to get more insight from ice shell measurements that we hope to be able to get for Europa and other worlds.\u201d<\/p>\n

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While Earth remains the only known world with bodies of liquid water on its surface, there are a myriad of worlds within our own solar system that have liquid water oceans beneath thick surfaces of ice. But what is the temperature of those interior oceans, and could the thickness of its ice shell determine it? This is what a recent study<\/a> published in Journal of Geophysical Research Planets<\/em> hopes to address as a team of researchers led by Cornell University investigated how a process called \u201cice pumping\u201d could determine the temperature of the interior ocean underneath thick icy shells, also known as ice-ocean interaction. This study holds the potential to help researchers better understand the conditions for finding life beyond Earth with a focus on Jupiter\u2019s moon, Europa<\/a>, and Saturn\u2019s moon, Enceladus<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we can measure the thickness variation across these ice shells, then we\u2019re able to get temperature constraints on the oceans, which there\u2019s really no other way yet to do without drilling into them,\u201d said Dr. Britney Schmidt<\/a>, who is an Associate Professor of Astronomy & Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at Cornell University and a co-author on the study. \u201cThis gives us another tool for trying to figure out how these oceans work. And the big question is, are things living there, or could they?\u201d<\/p>\n

For the study, the researchers used robotic observations obtained at Antarctica\u2019s Ross Ice Shelf and computer models to analyze how \u201cice pumping\u201d, which occurs in water underneath ice sheets and based on an ice shell\u2019s slope, could help regulate ocean temperature when accounting for pressure and salt content, as well. The goal was to ascertain the potential behavior of ice-ocean interaction on Jupiter\u2019s moon, Europa, and Saturn\u2019s moon, Enceladus, both of which possess interior oceans and are targets for astrobiologists searching for life beyond Earth.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cThere\u2019s a connection between the shape of the ice shell and the temperature in the ocean,\u201d said Dr. Britney Schmidt. \u201cThis is a new way to get more insight from ice shell measurements that we hope to be able to get for Europa and other worlds.\u201d While Earth remains the only known world with bodies [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":706,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1527,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-184137","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-alien-life","category-robotics-ai"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184137","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/706"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=184137"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184137\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=184137"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=184137"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=184137"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}