Wei-Ling Tseng

(National Taiwan Normal University)

The small icy bodies in the solar system, the comets and the icy satellites such as Europa, Enceladus and Titan, contain abundant water and organic volatile molecules. The comets are likely one of the sources bringing water into Earth’s ocean. Enceladus and Europa are suggested to have liquid water reservoirs beneath their surfaces due to the observed plume activities in addition to the geophysical structures and geological features (e.g., Waite et al., 2006; 2017; Porco et al., 2006; Roth et al., 2013). It makes these two little ones the most promising harbors for life in addition to Mars and Titan. We will study the chemical composition and distribution of the atmospheres of the small icy bodies using with the ground-based radio observations (i.e., JCMT and ALMA), the spacecraft data (i.e., Cassini and Rosetta) and the numerical modelings (i.e., radiative transfer, exospheric model). This synergic project will provide crucial information of the outgassing events of these icy bodies and better constraints in the ocean chemistry models (i.e., Europa) by investigating the sources of the atmospheric species and their associated radiolytic effects (irradiated vs. prior-to-irradiated). Therefore, this work will also improve understanding of the evolution of ocean, atmosphere and life in early history of the solar system; and provide complementary efforts to future space missions, such as NASA Europa Clipper and ESA JUICE mission.