Modeling impact processes on Titan's ice shell

• Grant number: 17/27081-1
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research
• Start date: October 29, 2018
• End date: April 28, 2019
• Field of knowledge: Physical Sciences and Mathematics - Geosciences - Geology
• Principal Investigator: Alvaro Penteado Crósta
• Grantee: Alvaro Penteado Crósta
• Host Investigator: Rosaly Mutel Crocce Lopes
• Host Institution: Instituto de Geociências (IG). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), United States

Abstract

Our knowledge about Titan, the largest of Saturn's moons, has improved substantially as a result of the Cassini (aka Cassini-Huygens) Mission. Titan's surface represents a prebiotic environment, rich in complex organic compounds, with a possible subsurface liquid ocean, representing a potentially biotic environment. Therefore, although life itself may not exist, the prebiotic conditions on Titan and the associated organic chemistry remain of great interest in understanding the early history of the terrestrial biosphere. Impact cratering can be used to develop constraints on the thickness of ice shells in icy planetary bodies and to model the depth of subsurface oceans, as well as the boundary conditions at the interface between the ice shell and the subsurface ocean. The objectives of this project comprise the application of numerical modeling of impact processes against Titan's icy surface to simulate the formation of impact craters in order to probe its connectivity to the lower layers, as well as the thickness and structure of the ice shell.

Scientific publications

(References retrieved automatically from Web of Science and SciELO through information on FAPESP grants and their corresponding numbers as mentioned in the publications by the authors)

CROSTA, A. P.; SILBER, E. A.; LOPES, R. M. C.; JOHNSON, B. C.; BJONNES, E.; MALASKA, M. J.; VANCE, S. D.; SOTIN, C.; SOLOMONIDOU, A.; SODERBLOM, J. M.. Modeling the formation of Menrva impact crater on Titan: Implications for habitability. ICARUS, v. 370, DEC 2021. (17/27081-1)