Detailed observations of Enceladus by the Cassini spacecraft revealed its astrobiological potential and transformed our perception of ocean worlds in the Solar System. Beneath Enceladus’ icy crust lies a warm ocean sustained by tidal heating. This ocean expels subsurface material through fissures at the south pole region into space as plumes. The particles in these plumes reaccrete on Enceladus’ surface, while some of the volatiles present in the sub-surface ocean diffuse through the ice shell to reach the surface. In this study, we irradiated thin Enceladus ice analogues in an ultra-high vacuum chamber optimised for ice chemistry at a surface temperature of 70 ± 2 K and compared the resulting composition with ices typical to the ISM (15 K). We studied the irradiation of ices composed of H₂O, CO₂, and NH₃ mixtures as a function of wavelength by using two different radiation sources that cover high and low photon energy ranges: The microwave-discharge hydrogen-flow lamp (MDHL) generating vacuum-ultraviolet (VUV) light, that is, between 115 - 180 nm, and the solar radiation Xe-arc lamp (SRL), simulating the solar broadband radiation from 200 nm - 1800 nm. Upon irradiation, solid-state photoproducts were identified using a Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) spectrometer in the mid-infrared range (4000 - 700 cm⁻¹ or 2.5 - 14.3 μm). Sublimating gas-phase species were tracked using a quadrupole mass spectrometer (QMS). At 70 K, energetic photons from the MDHL formed new species such as O₃ and CO₃ in an H₂O:CO₂:NH₃ ice matrix due to the clustering of CO₂ at elevated temperatures. Hereby, dissociation of segregated CO₂ provides the necessary oxygen atoms to form O₃ via the enhanced mobility and addition reaction of O-atoms. At 15 K, CO,OCN⁻,H₂CO,CH₃OH, HCOOH and possibly NH₂OH were induced by VUV-photons. Similarly, these species were detected at 70 K with a tentative assignment for HCOOH and NH₂OH. The SRL caused no chemical evolution of the ice due to insufficient photon energies. In conclusion, we predict the formation of ozone by gardening of CO₂-rich or mixed CO₂:H₂O ice, found, for example, in-between the tiger stripes on Enceladus or on other icy bodies in our Solar System with surface temperatures cooler than 88 K.

Supersonic plumes of water vapour and icy particles have been observed by the Cassini spacecraft during several flybys over Enceladus. These plumes originate from the Tiger Stripes located in the South Polar Terrain (SPT), and indicate the presence of a subsurface ocean under the icy crust which is salty and contains complex organic molecules. Other characteristics of the plumes, such as the vent temperature, mass flow rate, velocity and mass fraction of icy particles can be used to determine the conditions in the channel, linking the subsurface ocean to the icy surface. In this paper, we developed a fluid dynamics model that accounts for nucleation, particle growth, wall accretion and sublimation. The channel behaves similarly to a converging–diverging nozzle, which forms supersonic plumes due to a pressure difference between the reservoir where the subsurface ocean is located and the exosphere. The geometry of the channel and its evolution with accretion of gas and sublimation of ice are studied to reproduce the characteristics of the plumes observed by Cassini. We first performed a parameter study on the channel geometry to determine how it influences the plumes’ velocity, solid fraction and exit temperature. Our results show that the size of the icy particles is primarily dependent on the length of the channel, indicating that large particles (∼75μm) must originate from within a kilometer below the surface, while smaller particles (∼3μm) can originate from only hundreds of meters below the surface. We further show that the velocity of the flow, exit temperature and nucleation depend directly on the exit-to-throat size ratio. We find that the channel geometry evolves within a few tens of hours until an equilibrium is reached, when considering the accretion of gas to the walls, or sublimation of ice from the walls. As the channel closes due to accretion, the flow becomes thinner, which in turn reduces accretion. After around 70 h, the accretion is sufficiently slowed such that the geometry does not evolve anymore. This equilibrium geometry produces higher Mach numbers and a larger particle size and solid fraction compared to the initial geometry.

Context. The subsurface oceans of icy satellites are among the most compelling among the potentially habitable environments in our Solar System. The question of whether a liquid subsurface layer can be maintained over geological timescales depends on its chemical composition. The composition of icy satellites is linked to that of the circumplanetary disk (CPD) in which they form. The CPD accretes material from the surrounding circumstellar disk in the vicinity of the planet, however, the degree of chemical inheritance is unclear. Aims. We aim to investigate the composition of ices in chemically reset or inherited circumplanetary disks to inform interior modeling and the interpretation of in situ measurements of icy solar system satellites, with an emphasis on the Galilean moon system. Methods. We used the radiation-thermochemical code ProDiMo to produce circumplanetary disk models and then extract the ice composition from time-dependent chemistry, incorporating gas-phase and grain-surface reactions. Results. The initial sublimation of ices during accretion may result in a CO2 -rich ice composition due to efficient OH formation at high gas densities. In the case of a Jovian CPD, the sublimation of accreted ices results in a CO2 iceline between the present-day orbits of Ganymede and Callisto. Sublimated ammonia ice is destroyed by background radiation while drifting towards the CPD midplane. Liberated nitrogen becomes locked in N2 due to efficient self-shielding, leaving ices depleted of ammonia. A significant ammonia ice component remains only when ices are inherited from the circumstellar disk. Conclusions. The observed composition of the Galilean moons is consistent with the sublimation of ices during accretion onto the CPD. In this scenario, the Galilean moon ices are nitrogen-poor and CO2 on Callisto is endogenous and primordial. The ice composition is significantly altered after an initial reset of accreted circumstellar ice. The chemical history of the Galilean moons stands in contrast to the Saturnian system, where the composition of the moons corresponds more closely with the directly inherited circumstellar disk material.