PhD Position: Modeling the Enceladus Dust Plume

PhD Position: Modeling the Enceladus Dust Plume

A PhD position will open at the Astronomy Research Unit, University of Oulu, Finland. The focus of research is the dust dynamics in the plume of Saturn's active moon Enceladus.
The project is funded by the Academy of Finland and it has a duration of four years.

The Enceladus activity was one of the most surprising discoveries of the NASA/ESA Cassini-Huygens mission to Saturn. Multiple observations suggest that the moon harbours a subsurface reservoir of liquid water with hydrothermal activity. This makes Enceladus a prime candidate for a habitable world, outside the classical habitable zone. Improved modeling of the plume activity and the dynamics of plume particles, using recent data as a constraint, is the overarching goal of the proposed project, bearing the potential of settling first order questions such as the controversially discussed ice/vapor ratio in the plume.

Those interested should please send their application by email to [email protected] until 1st of July 2017. There should be contained a CV (including place and date of degrees, titles of theses, any further qualifications and awards), a brief description of the subject and main results of the latest thesis work, and one or two letters of recommendation by a senior researcher (e.g. former supervisor, or university teacher). The senior researcher can also send the letter of recommendation directly to the afore mentioned email address. If possible, please combine the application to one single pdf file.

For further information on the project please contact Juergen Schmidt of the University of Oulu ([email protected], http://cc.oulu.fi/~jrschmid/).