Our interest in icy satellites is mainly aimed at the study of Enceladus and Europa. Our involvement in the ESA JUpiter ICy moons Explorer (JUICE) mission will enable us to investigate in greater detail also Ganymede and Callisto and to extend our studies on Europa with new observations.

Enceladus

We are interested in the analysis of fractures on the surface on Enceladus via self-similar clustering and length distribution analysis. These methods provide us important informations concerning the deformation rate, the stress transmission mode, the rheology of the medium and the mechanical stratification of the satellite and allow us to constrain the depth of the mechanical discontinuity of Enceladus’ ice shell.

Source:

• Lucchetti A., et al., 2017: Brittle ice shell thickness of Enceladus from fracture distribution analysis,Icarus,297,252-264

Europa

We are interested in loss processes Europa’s tenuous atmosphere. In particular, we study the loss rates of H₂O, O₂ and H₂ for different plasma environments and populations. Such study sheds light on the processes related to the interaction between Europa and Jupyter’s magnetosphere.

For more details, visit:

• Lucchetti, A., et al., 2016: Loss rates of Europa׳s tenuous atmosphere, PSS, Volume 130,14-23