Seas under ice: stability of water oceans within icy worlds

Abstract

The possible existence of internal oceans in some icy bodies of the outer Solar System has been recently suggested in a joint of observations that cover a wide range of evidences: induced magnetic fields in Europa, Ganymede and Callisto [e.g., ref. 1], induced by Jupiter’s field in an electricity-conducting layer near the surface, likely salty water; hydrated minerals on the surface of Europa and Ganymede [3,4], which suggest the presence of water on the surface in the past, with probably an inner source; geological evidences of a mobile layer a few kilometers beneath the surface of Europa [5]; or a recent resurfacing in Triton suggested by the craterization’s density and distribution [6]. But the nature of the different proposed liquid layers could be very different, although the own existence of inner oceans could be a common phenomena.