Explanipedia

Lake Stars as an Earth Analog for Europa’s Manannán Crater Spider Feature Open

J. E. C. Scully, R. T. Pappalardo, Victor C. Tsai, Elodie Gloesener, S. Diniega · 2025

Jupiter’s icy moon Europa is an ocean world that is a prime candidate in our search for potential extraterrestrial habitability and life beyond Earth. Europa’s surface hosts many features proposed to originate from brine sources within its…

Plume Activity on Europa: Current Knowledge and Search Strategy for Europa Clipper Open

Lorenz Roth, Erin Leonard, Kelly E. Miller, Matthew M. Hedman, L. C. Quick , et al. · 2025

The presence of cryovolcanic activity in the form of geyser-like plumes at Jupiter’s moon Europa is a much-debated topic. As an active plume could allow direct sampling by a passing spacecraft of a potentially habitable interior environmen…

Assessing Europa Clipper’s Response to JUICE–Clipper Synergistic Science Opportunities in the Jupiter System Open

R. T. Pappalardo, H. Korth, B. Burratti, Mathieu Choukroun · 2025

NASA’s Europa Clipper and ESA’s Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (JUICE) missions are each currently bound to explore the Jupiter system during overlapping time periods in the early 2030s. Europa Clipper is scheduled to arrive in orbit around Ju…

Activities and Observations during the Europa Clipper Cruise Phase Open

H. Korth, R. T. Pappalardo, B. J. Buratti · 2025

Launched on 14 October 2024, the Europa Clipper mission represents a pivotal endeavor in planetary exploration, aimed specifically at studying the habitability of Jupiter’s moon Europa. During its cruise phase, the spacecraft will conduct …

Europa Thermal Emission Imaging System (E-THEMIS) cruise observations of Mars Open

P. R. Christensen, J. R. Spencer, S. Piqueux, G. Mehall, Saadat Anwar , et al. · 2025

The Europa Thermal Emission Imaging System (E-THEMIS) on the Europa Clipper spacecraft will investigate the temperature and physical properties of Europa using thermal infrared images in three wavelength bands at 7-14 µm, 14-28 µm and 28-7…

Lake Stars as an Earth Analog for Europa’s Manannán Crater Spider Feature Open

Lauren Mc Keown, Elodie Lesage, J. E. C. Scully, Erin Leonard, R. T. Pappalardo , et al. · 2025

Jupiter’s icy moon Europa is an ocean world which is a prime candidate in our search for potential extraterrestrial habitability and life beyond Earth. Europa’s surface hosts many features proposed to originate from brine sources within it…

An overview of small-scale mass wasting surface degradation process on Europa Open

Rutu Parekh, J. E. C. Scully, R. T. Pappalardo, M. E. Cameron, P. Schenk · 2024

Introduction: In the post-Galileo era, a few studies have noted the presence of a fragmental debris layer, indicating dry granular-like mass movement and the potential for a thin dusty regolith within the plates of Conamara Chaos on Europa…

Europa Clipper: The Final Countdown Open

H. Korth, R. T. Pappalardo, B. J. Buratti, K. L. Craft, I. J. Daubar , et al. · 2024

Introduction: In October 2024, NASA’s Europa Clipper will launch on a journey to explore the habitability of Jupiter’s moon Europa. At the beginning of the next decade, the spacecraft will orbit Jupiter, flying by Europa nearly…

Leveraging science team meetings to build connections with local communities: Europa Clipper y la Universidad de Puerto Rico Open

Inès Belgacem, C. B. Phillips, Alexandra Matiella Novak, L. Velázquez, Brandon Rodriguez , et al. · 2024

In November 2023, the Europa Clipper science team held their group meeting in San Juan, Puerto Rico, chosen in part because of the existing partnership with University of Puerto Rico (UPR) and Here2Observe (H2O) program [1, 2]. Leveraging …

Exploring the Composition of Europa with the Upcoming Europa Clipper Mission Open

Tracy M. Becker, M. Yu. Zolotov, Murthy S. Gudipati, J. M. Soderblom, M. A. McGrath , et al. · 2024

Jupiter’s icy moon, Europa, harbors a subsurface liquid water ocean; the prospect of this ocean being habitable motivates further exploration of the moon with the upcoming NASA Europa Clipper mission. Key among the mission goals is a compr…

Science Overview of the Europa Clipper Mission Open

R. T. Pappalardo, B. J. Buratti, H. Korth, D. A. Senske, D. L. Blaney , et al. · 2024

The goal of NASA’s Europa Clipper mission is to assess the habitability of Jupiter’s moon Europa. After entering Jupiter orbit in 2030, the flight system will collect science data while flying past Europa 49 times at typical closest approa…

The Europa Clipper Mission and its Final Stretch to Launch Open

K. L. Craft, R. T. Pappalardo, B. J. Buratti, H. Korth, I. J. Daubar , et al. · 2024

Scheduled to launch in October 2024, NASA’s Europa Clipper will set out on a journey to explore the habitability of Jupiter’s icy ocean world Europa. After a 5.5 yr cruise that includes gravity assists at Mars and Earth, the sp…

The Europa Clipper Flight System on its Path to Launch  Open

H. Korth, R. T. Pappalardo, B. J. Buratti · 2024

At the beginning of the next decade, the Europa Clipper Flight System will enter orbit around Jupiter and, over a four-year period, will fly by Europa nearly 50 times to explore the habitability of this planet’s moon Europa. The Flig…

Planned Geological Investigations of the Europa Clipper Mission Open

I. J. Daubar, Alexander G. Hayes, G. C. Collins, K. L. Craft, J. A. Rathbun , et al. · 2024

Geological investigations planned for the Europa Clipper mission will examine the formation, evolution, and expression of geomorphic structures found on the surface. Understanding geologic features, their formation, and any recent activity…

Exploring the Interior of Europa with the Europa Clipper Open

J. H. Roberts, William B. McKinnon, C. M. Elder, G. Tobie, John B. Biersteker , et al. · 2023

Moonquake-triggered mass wasting processes on icy satellites Open

Mackenzie M. Mills, R. T. Pappalardo, M. P. Panning, Erin Leonard, S. M. Howell · 2023

Intense tectonism is evident on many outer solar system satellites with some surface regions exhibiting ridge-and-trough structures which have characteristics suggestive of normal faulting. In some cases, topographic lows between subparall…

Europa Clipper Mission Update Open

H. Korth, R. T. Pappalardo, B. J. Buratti, K. L. Craft, S. M. Howell , et al. · 2023

With a launch readiness date of late 2024, NASA’s Europa Clipper will set out on a journey to explore the habitability of Jupiter’s moon Europa. At the beginning of the next decade, the spacecraft will orbit Jupiter, flying by …

Moonquake-Triggered Mass Wasting Processes on Icy Worlds Open

R. T. Pappalardo, Mackenzie M. Mills, M. P. Panning, Erin Leonard, S. M. Howell · 2023

Intense tectonism is evident on many outer solar system satellites with some surface regions exhibiting ridge-and-trough structures which have characteristics suggestive of normal faulting. In some cases, topographic lows between subparall…

Turbulent Drag at the Ice‐Ocean Interface of Europa in Simulations of Rotating Convection: Implications for Nonsynchronous Rotation of the Ice Shell Open

Hamish Hay, Ian Fenty, R. T. Pappalardo, Yoshihiro Nakayama · 2023

Europa's geologically scarred surface shows significant evidence that the ice shell may have rotated nonsynchronously in the past. The long‐term spin state of the ice shell is controlled by the time‐mean torques acting upon it. A torque th…

Europa Clipper: exploring Europa’s habitability Open

R. T. Pappalardo, B. J. Buratti, H. Korth, K. L. Craft, I. J. Daubar , et al. · 2022

Introduction: With a launch readiness date of late 2024, NASA’s Europa Clipper will set out on a journey to explore the habitability of Jupiter’s moon Europa. In the early 2030s, th…

In-situ Investigations of the Europa Clipper Mission Open

H. Korth, R. T. Pappalardo, B. J. Buratti, S. Kempf, M. G. Kivelson , et al. · 2022

1. Introduction With a launch readiness date of late 2024, NASA’s Europa Clipper will set out on a journey to explore the habitability of Jupiter’s moon Europa. A…

Is Europa Active and Suitable for Life? - How Europa Clipper and its Habitability Assessment Board (HAB) are working to synthesize observations to characterize Europa and its potential activity. Open

K. L. Craft, R. T. Pappalardo, S. Vance, Wiliam McKinnon, H. Korth , et al. · 2022

Introduction: The habitability of Europa is a property within a system, with many interdependent physical and chemical parameters, among a number of processes, of which no single measurement or investi…

Finding Order in Chaos: Quantitative Predictors of Chaos Terrain Morphology on Europa Open

Erin Leonard, S. M. Howell, Alyssa Mills, D. A. Senske, D. A. Patthoff , et al. · 2022

The mechanisms for chaos terrain formation on Europa have long been a source of debate in the scientific community. There exist numerous theoretical and numerical models for chaos formation, but to date there has been a lack of quantifiabl…

Dataset for "Finding order in chaos: Quantitative predictors of chaos terrain morphology on Europa" Open

Erin Leonard, S. M. Howell, Alyssa Mills, D. Senske, D. A. Patthoff , et al. · 2022

Dataset S1 contains two shapefiles containing the chaos borders (ChaosBordersShapefiles.zip) and each block mapped (AllBlocksShapefiles.zip), and a text file that contains the total area (km2) of each mapped chaos terrain and the area (km2…

Europa Clipper Mission Update Open

H. Korth, R. T. Pappalardo, K. L. Craft, I. J. Daubar, Hamish Hay , et al. · 2022

With a launch readiness date of late 2024, NASA’s Europa Clipper will set out on a journey to explore the habitability of Jupiter’s moon Europa. At the beginning of the next decade, the spacecraft will orbit Ju…

Supporting data for "The high-frequency tidal response of ocean worlds: Application to Europa and Ganymede" Open

Hamish Hay, I. Matsuyama, R. T. Pappalardo · 2022

Data files containing the static Love numbers that are used to compute the dynamic Love numbers.

Supporting data for "The high-frequency tidal response of ocean worlds: Application to Europa and Ganymede" Open

Hamish Hay, I. Matsuyama, R. T. Pappalardo · 2022

Data files containing the static Love numbers that are used to compute the dynamic Love numbers.

Dataset for "Finding order in chaos: Quantitative predictors of chaos terrain morphology on Europa" Open

Erin Leonard, S. M. Howell, Alyssa Mills, D. Senske, D. A. Patthoff , et al. · 2021

Dataset S1 is a text file that contains the total area (km²) of each mapped chaos terrain and the area (km²) of every block we mapped within each chaos terrain in the manuscript "Finding order in chaos: Quantitative p…

Dataset for "Finding order in chaos: Quantitative predictors of chaos terrain morphology on Europa" Open

Erin Leonard, S. M. Howell, Alyssa Mills, D. Senske, D. A. Patthoff , et al. · 2021

Dataset S1 contains two shapefiles containing the chaos borders (ChaosBorders.shp) and each block mapped (AllBlocks.shp), and a text file that contains the total area (km²) of each mapped chaos terrain and the area (km²

The moons of Uranus: Five candidate ocean worlds and a bevy of small satellites in an ice giant system Open

Richard Cartwright, C. B. Beddingfield, Tom Nordheim, C. M. Elder, Julie Castillo‐Rogez , et al. · 2021

The 27 moons of Uranus (Figure 1) are enigmatic and remain poorly understood. Voyager 2 flew by the Uranus system in 1986, collecting fascinating images of its five largest, tidally-locked ‘classical’ moons (Figure 2), while al…

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