One of the most profound insights in planetary science has been the recent discovery that bodies with current or past subsurface global water oceansOceans are relatively common in our solar system. These ocean worldsOcean Worlds have risen to the forefront of planetary exploration and the search for lifeLife. This chapter describes ocean-world surfaces and interior structures, as well as their constraints, and explores how they may drive future spacecraft and instrument design. While this chapter is not exhaustive, it is representative of how spacecraft data, numerical models, and geologic inferences can be employed to constrain physical, quantitative descriptions of ocean-world interior environmentsInterior environments. We begin with an overview of the exploration history of these bodies and the scientific motivation for their study. We then explore the interior structures of ocean worlds, and how geological observation and geophysical inferences are used to quantitatively constrain icy and liquid water interior environments. We specifically focus on the physical and thermal aspects of interior environments, overviewing how observational data is used as inputs to numerical and mathematical models that predict interior state.
Ocean Worlds: Interior Processes and Physical Environments
Handbook of Space Resources ; Chapter : 26 ; 873-906
2023-04-28
34 pages
Article/Chapter (Book)
Electronic Resource
English
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