The Deep Composition of Uranus and Neptune from In Situ Exploration and Thermochemical Modeling
Cavalié, Thibault, Venot, Olivia, Miguel, Yamila, Fletcher, Leigh N., Wurz, Peter, Mousis, Olivier, Bounaceur, Roda, Hue, Vincent, Leconte, Jérémy, Dobrijevic, Michel
Abstract
The distant ice giants of the Solar System, Uranus and Neptune, have only\nbeen visited by one space mission, Voyager 2. The current knowledge on their\ncomposition remains very limited despite some recent advances. A better\ncharacterization of their composition is however essential to constrain their\nformation and evolution, as a significant fraction of their mass is made of\nheavy elements, contrary to the gas giants Jupiter and Saturn. An in situ probe\nlike Galileo would provide us with invaluable direct ground-truth composition\nmeasurements. However, some of the condensibles will remain out of the grasp of\na shallow probe. While additional constraints could be obtained from a\ncomplementary orbiter, thermochemistry and diffusion modeling can further help\nus to increase the science return of an in situ probe.