Monday, August 4, 2025

Simulating Ice Worlds in the Lab

The Large Dirty Mars Chamber, nicknamed "George" housed at the Open University. It was used to simulate icy conditions on frigid worlds such as Enceladus and Europa. Credit: Petr Brož

Many objects in the outer Solar System contain large amounts of water ice, leading to a thick icy shell surrounding an ocean of liquid water. This water behaves like lava on Earth, reshaping their surfaces through a process called cryovolcanism. To better understand this process, researchers have created a low-pressure chamber that simulates the near-vacuum conditions on the surfaces of worlds like Europa and Enceladus. They could watch water create features we see across the Solar System.



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