Role of high-pressure clathrates in chemical evolution of icy satellites oceans

Search for potential habitable environments beyond the Earth is one of the top priorities in planetary sciences. Icy satellites are the only planetary bodies beyond Earth where the presence of liquid water has been discovered. Low-mass organic compounds are expected to be dissolved in the subsurface oceans and to act as precursors for synthesis of biologically relevant organic compounds in the oceans’ depths. The oceans of icy satellites span over the P-T conditions at which the dissolved organic molecules are expected to be encapsulated into clathrate hydrates. There is no data on organic clathrates at high pressure, their phase stabilities, crystal structures, compressibility and thermal expansion. This information is crucial in understanding the astrobiological potential of icy planets’ oceans, therefore, we propose to investigate clathrate hydrates with biologically relevant organic molecules by means of in situ single-crystal XRD at both high pressures and low temperatures.