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Blaney DL, Hibbitts K, Diniega S, Davies AG, Clark RN, Green RO, Hedman M, Langevin Y, Lunine J, McCord TB, Murchie S, Paranicas C, Seelos F, Soderblom JM, Cable ML, Eckert R, Thompson DR, Trumbo SK, Bruce C, Lundeen SR, Bender HA, Helmlinger MC, Moore LB, Mouroulis P, Small Z, Tang H, Van Gorp B, Sullivan PW, Zareh S, Rodriquez JI, McKinley I, Hahn DV, Bowers M, Hourani R, Bryce BA, Nuding D, Bailey Z, Rettura A, Zarate ED. The Mapping Imaging Spectrometer for Europa (MISE). SPACE SCIENCE REVIEWS 2024; 220:80. [PMID: 39398102 PMCID: PMC11464581 DOI: 10.1007/s11214-024-01097-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/04/2023] [Accepted: 06/25/2024] [Indexed: 10/15/2024]
Abstract
The Mapping Imaging Spectrometer for Europa (MISE) is an infrared compositional instrument that will fly on NASA's Europa Clipper mission to the Jupiter system. MISE is designed to meet the Level-1 science requirements related to the mission's composition science objective to "understand the habitability of Europa's ocean through composition and chemistry" and to contribute to the geology science and ice shell and ocean objectives, thereby helping Europa Clipper achieve its mission goal to "explore Europa to investigate its habitability." MISE has a mass of 65 kg and uses an energy per flyby of 75.2 W-h. MISE will detect illumination from 0.8 to 5 μm with 10 nm spectral resolution, a spatial sampling of 25 m per pixel at 100 km altitude, and 300 cross-track pixels, enabling discrimination among the two principal states of water ice on Europa, identification of the main non-ice components of interest: salts, acids, and organics, and detection of trace materials as well as some thermal signatures. Furthermore, the spatial resolution and global coverage that MISE will achieve will be complemented by the higher spectral resolution of some Earth-based assets. MISE, combined with observations collected by the rest of the Europa Clipper payload, will enable significant advances in our understanding of how the large-scale structure of Europa's surface is shaped by geological processes and inform our understanding of the surface at microscale. This paper describes the planned MISE science investigations, instrument design, concept of operations, and data products.
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Affiliation(s)
- Diana L. Blaney
- Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA USA
| | - Karl Hibbitts
- Applied Physics Laboratory, Johns Hopkins University, Laurel, MD USA
| | - Serina Diniega
- Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA USA
| | | | | | - Robert O. Green
- Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA USA
| | | | | | | | | | - Scott Murchie
- Applied Physics Laboratory, Johns Hopkins University, Laurel, MD USA
| | - Chris Paranicas
- Applied Physics Laboratory, Johns Hopkins University, Laurel, MD USA
| | - Frank Seelos
- Applied Physics Laboratory, Johns Hopkins University, Laurel, MD USA
| | | | - Morgan L. Cable
- Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA USA
| | - Regina Eckert
- Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA USA
| | - David R. Thompson
- Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA USA
| | | | - Carl Bruce
- Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA USA
| | - Sarah R. Lundeen
- Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA USA
| | - Holly A. Bender
- Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA USA
| | - Mark C. Helmlinger
- Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA USA
| | - Lori B. Moore
- Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA USA
| | - Pantazis Mouroulis
- Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA USA
| | - Zachary Small
- Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA USA
| | - Hong Tang
- Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA USA
| | - Byron Van Gorp
- Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA USA
| | - Peter W. Sullivan
- Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA USA
| | - Shannon Zareh
- Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA USA
| | - Jose I. Rodriquez
- Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA USA
| | - Ian McKinley
- Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA USA
| | - Daniel V. Hahn
- Applied Physics Laboratory, Johns Hopkins University, Laurel, MD USA
| | - Matthew Bowers
- Applied Physics Laboratory, Johns Hopkins University, Laurel, MD USA
| | - Ramsey Hourani
- Applied Physics Laboratory, Johns Hopkins University, Laurel, MD USA
| | - Brian A. Bryce
- Applied Physics Laboratory, Johns Hopkins University, Laurel, MD USA
| | - Danielle Nuding
- Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA USA
| | - Zachery Bailey
- Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA USA
| | - Alessandro Rettura
- Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA USA
| | - Evan D. Zarate
- Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA USA
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Bland MT, Weller LA, Archinal BA, Smith E, Wheeler BH. Improving the Usability of Galileo and Voyager Images of Jupiter's Moon Europa. EARTH AND SPACE SCIENCE (HOBOKEN, N.J.) 2021; 8:e2021EA001935. [PMID: 35864914 PMCID: PMC9286035 DOI: 10.1029/2021ea001935] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/29/2021] [Revised: 09/29/2021] [Accepted: 10/14/2021] [Indexed: 06/15/2023]
Abstract
NASA's Voyager 1, Voyager 2, and Galileo spacecraft acquired hundreds of images of Jupiter's moon Europa. These images provide the only moderate- to high-resolution views of the moon's surface and are therefore a critical resource for scientific analysis and future mission planning. Unfortunately, uncertain knowledge of the spacecraft's position and pointing during image acquisition resulted in significant errors in the location of the images on the surface. The result is that adjacent images are poorly aligned, with some images displaced by more than 100 km from their correct location. These errors severely degrade the usability of the Voyager and Galileo imaging data sets. To improve the usability of these data sets, we used the U.S. Geological Survey Integrated Software for Imagers and Spectrometers to build a nearly global image tie-point network with more than 50,000 tie points and 135,000 image measurements on 481 Galileo and 221 Voyager images. A global least-squares bundle adjustment of our final Europa tie-point network calculated latitude, longitude, and radius values for each point by minimizing residuals globally, and resulted in root mean square (RMS) uncertainties of 246.6 m, 307.0 m, and 70.5 m in latitude, longitude, and radius, respectively. The total RMS uncertainty was 0.32 pixels. This work enables direct use of nearly the entire Galileo and Voyager image data sets for Europa. We are providing the community with updated NASA Navigation and Ancillary Information Facility Spacecraft, Planet, Instrument, C-matrix (pointing), and Events kernels, mosaics of Galileo images acquired during each observation sequence, and individual processed and projected level 2 images.
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Affiliation(s)
- Michael T. Bland
- Astrogeology Science CenterU. S. Geological SurveyFlagstaffAZUSA
| | - Lynn A. Weller
- Astrogeology Science CenterU. S. Geological SurveyFlagstaffAZUSA
| | | | - Ethan Smith
- Astrogeology Science CenterU. S. Geological SurveyFlagstaffAZUSA
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Ashkenazy Y. The surface temperature of Europa. Heliyon 2019; 5:e01908. [PMID: 31294099 PMCID: PMC6595243 DOI: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2019.e01908] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/18/2018] [Revised: 03/10/2019] [Accepted: 06/03/2019] [Indexed: 11/01/2022] Open
Abstract
Previous estimates of the annual mean surface temperature of Jupiter's moon, Europa, neglected the effect of the eccentricity of Jupiter's orbit around the Sun, the effect of the emissivity and heat capacity of Europa's ice, the effect of the eclipse of Europa (i.e., the relative time that Europa is within the shadow of Jupiter), the effect of Jupiter's radiation, and the effect of Europa's internal heating. Other studies concentrated on the diurnal cycle but neglected some of the above factors. In addition, to our knowledge, the seasonal cycle of the surface temperature of Europa was not estimated. Here we systematically estimate the diurnal, seasonal and annual mean surface temperature of Europa, when Europa's obliquity, emissivity, heat capacity, and eclipse, as well as Jupiter's radiation, internal heating, and eccentricity, are all taken into account. For a typical internal heating rate of 0.05 W m - 2 , the equator, pole, and the global and mean annual mean surface temperatures are 96 K, 46 K, and 90 K, respectively. We found that the temperature at the high latitudes is significantly affected by the internal heating, especially during the winter solstice, suggesting that measurements of high latitude surface temperatures can be used to constrain the internal heating. We also estimate the incoming solar radiation to Enceladus, the moon of Saturn.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yosef Ashkenazy
- Department of Solar Energy and Environmental Physics, BIDR, Ben-Gurion University, Midreshet Ben-Gurion, Israel
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Garcia-Lopez E, Cid C. Glaciers and Ice Sheets As Analog Environments of Potentially Habitable Icy Worlds. Front Microbiol 2017; 8:1407. [PMID: 28804477 PMCID: PMC5532398 DOI: 10.3389/fmicb.2017.01407] [Citation(s) in RCA: 30] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/16/2017] [Accepted: 07/11/2017] [Indexed: 01/09/2023] Open
Abstract
Icy worlds in the solar system and beyond have attracted a remarkable attention as possible habitats for life. The current consideration about whether life exists beyond Earth is based on our knowledge of life in terrestrial cold environments. On Earth, glaciers and ice sheets have been considered uninhabited for a long time as they seemed too hostile to harbor life. However, these environments are unique biomes dominated by microbial communities which maintain active biochemical routes. Thanks to techniques such as microscopy and more recently DNA sequencing methods, a great biodiversity of prokaryote and eukaryote microorganisms have been discovered. These microorganisms are adapted to a harsh environment, in which the most extreme features are the lack of liquid water, extremely cold temperatures, high solar radiation and nutrient shortage. Here we compare the environmental characteristics of icy worlds, and the environmental characteristics of terrestrial glaciers and ice sheets in order to address some interesting questions: (i) which are the characteristics of habitability known for the frozen worlds, and which could be compatible with life, (ii) what are the environmental characteristics of terrestrial glaciers and ice sheets that can be life-limiting, (iii) What are the microbial communities of prokaryotic and eukaryotic microorganisms that can live in them, and (iv) taking into account these observations, could any of these planets or satellites meet the conditions of habitability? In this review, the icy worlds are considered from the point of view of astrobiological exploration. With the aim of determining whether icy worlds could be potentially habitable, they have been compared with the environmental features of glaciers and ice sheets on Earth. We also reviewed some field and laboratory investigations about microorganisms that live in analog environments of icy worlds, where they are not only viable but also metabolically active.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Cristina Cid
- Microbial Evolution Laboratory, Centro de Astrobiología (Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas-Instituto Nacional de Técnica Aeroespacial)Madrid, Spain
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A'Hearn MF, Belton MJS, Delamere WA, Feaga LM, Hampton D, Kissel J, Klaasen KP, McFadden LA, Meech KJ, Melosh HJ, Schultz PH, Sunshine JM, Thomas PC, Veverka J, Wellnitz DD, Yeomans DK, Besse S, Bodewits D, Bowling TJ, Carcich BT, Collins SM, Farnham TL, Groussin O, Hermalyn B, Kelley MS, Kelley MS, Li JY, Lindler DJ, Lisse CM, McLaughlin SA, Merlin F, Protopapa S, Richardson JE, Williams JL. EPOXI at Comet Hartley 2. Science 2011; 332:1396-400. [DOI: 10.1126/science.1204054] [Citation(s) in RCA: 351] [Impact Index Per Article: 25.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/02/2022]
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