Project description
Determining if frozen extraterrestrial oceans support prebiotic chemistry
Water in its liquid form is believed to have driven the early chemical processes on Earth. This raises the question of whether extraterrestrial ocean environments trapped beneath icy crusts could also support the building blocks of life. The ERC-funded OCEAN project aims to understand how physical parameters such as pressure, temperature and composition influence organic chemistry in the subsurface oceans of icy moons and to determine if these environments facilitate or inhibit the creation of prebiotic molecules. Using advanced scattering, spectroscopy and simulation techniques, it will investigate the processes that control the chemical evolution of organic volatile compounds inside ocean worlds.
Objective
The presence of water in its liquid state is thought to have driven Earth's prebiotic chemistry and is considered an essential element for the emergence of life. This explains the unprecedented interest in extraterrestrial ocean worlds harboring liquid oceans underneath their icy crusts. Despite advanced space mission programs and interdisciplinary research to assess the habitability of ocean worlds, the question of the emergence of life is mostly addressed through the prism of the Earth’s contexts. High pressure is a parameter that makes a major difference between the hydrospheres of Earth and large ocean worlds. While various volatile organics are present in extra-terrestrial hydrospheres and can potentially act as biological precursors, information on their chemical evolution at relevant pressure-temperature-composition conditions in aqueous environment is almost absent. The project OCEAN is designed to cover this gap of knowledge.
My team will use advanced in situ X-Ray and neutron diffraction techniques in combination with Raman and infrared spectroscopy to investigate processes that control the evolution of organic volatile compounds in interiors of ocean worlds, from interaction of water with simple molecules to formation of more complex prebiotic organic molecules. At various conditions, we will define structural properties, equations of state and phase stabilities of solid organic compounds. OCEAN will allow us 1) to formulate fundamental laws correlating the chemical nature of organic precursors and their pressure-induced transformation pathways in aqueous environment and 2) to understand organics transport and chemical exchange between the interiors and surfaces of large ocean worlds. In combination with a created database of infrared spectra of organic-bearing frozen mixtures, OCEAN will provide a critical reference for interpretation of upcoming compositional data from the space missions and for accessing the astrobiological potential of ocean worlds.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
This project's classification has been human-validated.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
This project's classification has been human-validated.
Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC)
MAIN PROGRAMME
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Topic(s)
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Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-ERC - HORIZON ERC Grants
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Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) ERC-2025-COG
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
75794 PARIS
France
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