In the week from 31st March to 4th April, the 4th Moon-Magnetosphere Interaction Workshop took place at the University of Cologne, hosted by Prof. Joachim Saur and Dr Alexander Grayver. Around 60 scientists from all over the world took part, including doctoral students and former graduates from Prof Saur's working group.
The workshop focussed on the interaction of moons of the outer planets (especially moons of Jupiter and Saturn) with the magnetospheres of their parent planets. The magnetosphere is the area around the planets in which the planetary magnetic field dominates. In addition to the magnetic field, the plasma (consisting of electrons and ionised atoms) also plays an important role. The magnetospheres are mainly explored by space missions (formerly Voyager, Galileo, Cassini; currently Juno; in future JUICE and Europa Clipper), but also with telescopes from Earth.
In addition to the many interesting physical questions, the oceans discovered on several moons under the ice crusts on the surface played a key role. The electromagnetic investigation methods presented by the participants at the workshop represent the most important evidence for the existence of these oceans today. The existence of liquid water in the outer solar system opens up the possibility that life could have evolved here, as the conditions there are very similar to the environments on Earth where life as we know it originated.
For further details, see https://indico.esa.int/event/551/