This session seeks to open cross-divisional conversations between scientists studying our ocean on Earth and oceans on other parts of the Solar System, and to identify areas of collaboration and mutual interest.
Chairs: Laura Lorenzoni (NASA Headquarters Science Mission Directorate), Ashley Kleinman (NASA Headquarters Science Mission Directorate), Chris German (Woods Hole Oceanographic Inst.), Alison Murray (Univ. Nevada, Reno), Paula Bontempi (Univ. Rhode Island), Adam Martiny (Univ. California, Irvine)
Date: June 18, 2021
The session seeks to explore science and collaboration across five main areas:
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Ocean Sciences Across the Solar System
Ocean Worlds of the Solar System shown to scale. Jupiter’s moons Europa, Callisto and Ganymede have all been confirmed to host large-volume salt-water oceans as have Saturn’s moons Enceladus and Titan: all beneath thick ice-shells. Further out in the solar system, other candidate ocean worlds await further investigation, including Neptune’s moon Triton. Image credit: K.P. Hand, NASA-JPL.
1. Biogeochemistry of Ocean Worlds – The physics, the chemistry, the biology (Keynote talk - watch first)
Speakers: Tori Hoehler (NASA Ames Research Center), Mike Behrenfeld (Oregon State Univ.)
2. Ocean World Workings – what do we know about Earth's ocean, and how that translates to other planetary systems?
Speakers: Wanying Kang (Massachusetts Inst. Technology), Jeff Seewald (Woods Hole Oceanographic Inst.)
3. Analogs – How are we using our Earth as analog for ocean worlds, based on our understanding of Earth’s ocean system processes? How is this advancing our own understanding of Earth?
Speakers: Jackie Grebmeier (University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science), Don Blankenship (University of Texas Institute for Geophysics)
4. Technology – What are we currently using to look at ocean worlds? What have we done on Earth that could translate to other moons? This topic includes space-based and other types of technology.
Speakers: Anna Michel (Woods Hole Oceanographic Inst.)
Heidi Dierssen (Univ. Connecticut)
Ved Chirayath (NASA Ames Research Center),
5. Life Detection in Ocean Worlds – How can we detect life signatures in other worlds? What have we learned about life in extreme environments on Earth? How does this help us understand the origin of life on Earth?
Speakers: Sarah Stewart Johnson (Georgetown Univ.)
Peter Girguis (Harvard Univ.)
