Water Worlds in the Solar System

An oceanographer’s perspective of water prevalence, importance and evolution in our Solar System, along with subsequent habitability considerations

Antony Joseph (Author)

9780323957175, Elsevier Science

Paperback / softback, published 2 December 2022

844 pages
27.6 x 21.6 x 5.1 cm, 2.24 kg

"This book forms a comprehensive overview on water in the solar system, from formation to biosignature and habitability considerations." --Lunar and Planetary Information Bulletin

Water Worlds in the Solar System: In Search of Habitable Environments and Life is a comprehensive reference on the formation, availability, habitability potential, and astrobiological implications of water in the Solar System. The book provides understanding of the importance of water on Earth to elucidate potential water and biosignature sources on other bodies in the Solar System. It covers processes involved in the formation of Earth and its Moon, genesis of water on those bodies, events on early Earth, and other processes that are applicable to celestial bodies in the Solar System, directly correlating data available on water on other bodies to over 15 Earth analogue sites.

1. Knowing Earth to Better Understand Extraterrestrial Worlds 2. Terrestrial Analogues and Submarine Hydrothermal Vents - Their Roles in Exploring Ocean Worlds, Habitability, and Life beyond Earth 3. Biosignatures - the Prime Targets in the Search for Life beyond Earth 4. Significance of Earthly Extremophiles in the Search for Habitability beyond Earth 5. Lunar Explorations: Discovering Water, Minerals, and Underground Caves and Tunnel Complexes - Hope for Human Settlement and Resource Exploitation? 6. Liquid Water Lake Under Ice in Mars’s Southern Hemisphere - Possibility of Subsurface Biosphere and Life 7. Could Near-Earth Watery Asteroid Ceres Be a Likely Ocean World and Habitable? 8. Water on Near-Earth Asteroid Vesta - Past and Present 9. An Ocean and Volcanic Seafloor Hiding Within Jupiter's Icy Moon Europa - Eruption of Water Vapour Plumes Near its South and North Poles 10. Salty Ocean and Submarine Hydrothermal Vents on Saturn's Moon Enceladus - Tall Plume of Gas, Jets of Water Vapour and Organic-Enriched Ice Particles Spewing from its South Pole 11. Hydrocarbon Lakes and Seas & Internal Ocean on Titan - Resemblance with Primitive Earth's Prebiotic Chemistry 12. A Likely Ocean World Fostering a Rare Mixing of CO and N2 Ice Molecules on Neptune's Moon Triton 13. Subsurface Ocean of Liquid Water on Pluto 14. Hunting for Environments Favorable to Life on Planets, Moons, Dwarf Planets, and Meteorites

Subject Areas: Space science [TTD], Biology, life sciences [PS]