Jun Kimura's website

Jun KIMURA

Dept. Earth and Space Science, University of Osaka
Planetary evolution, geology, and astrobiology

Why does the solar system harbor such a striking diversity of worlds?
I seek to uncover the stories etched into the planets and moons — how their rich diversity came to be, how time has sculpted them, what mysteries lie hidden in their interiors, and how their landscapes and atmospheres were born.
I also wonder where conditions suitable for the emergence of life might exist beyond Earth.

News

Jan. 20, 2026 [Paper] First-author review paper comprehensively summarizing icy bodies in the Solar System has been published in Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Planetary Science.
Jan. 13, 2026 [Paper] First-author paper presenting a theoretical model for the growth and internal evolution of icy planetesimals, providing a unified framework from the low-temperature environment recorded in Ryugu materials to the high-temperature differentiation processes leading to iron meteorite formation, has been published in the Earth, Planets and Space.
Jul. 25, 2025 [Paper] First author paper on estimation of ice purity in Saturn's rings using ground-based visible spectroscopy and its comparison with Cassini data has been published in the Research Notes of AAS.
Apr. 17, 2025 [Paper] Co-authored paper regarding searching calcium atoms in the Europa's atmosphere using ground-based telescope (corresponding author, Dr. Seiko Takagi [Hokkaido Univ.]）has been published in the Research Notes of AAS.
Mar. 18, 2025 [Paper] Co-authored paper regarding scientific objectives and instrument design of the Ganymede Laer Altimeter (GALA) onboard the Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (JUICE) (corresponding author, Dr. Hauke Hussmann [DLR, Berlin]）has been published in the Space Science Reviews.
Feb. 02, 2025 [Paper] Co-authored paper regarding interior structure of Jovian moon Ganymede (corresponding author, Dr. Hauke Hussmann [DLR, Berlin]）has been published on "Ganymede", book of the Cambridge University Press.
Oct. 28, 2024 [Paper] First author paper on the search for plume activity on Jovian moon Europa through near-infrared spectroscopic observations with the Subaru Telescope has been published in the Publications of the Astronomical Society of Japan.
Jul. 11, 2024 [Paper] Co-authored paper summarizing the JUICE mission's objectives for probing the internal structures of Jovian moons Ganymede, Callisto, and Europa (corresponding author, Dr. Tim Van Hoolst [Royal Observatory of Belgium]) has been published in the Space Science Reviews.
Mar. 05, 2024 [Paper] First author paper explaining the existence of a subsurface ocean and the absence of a metallic core-generated magnetic field on Jovian moon Europa has been published in the Planetary and Space Science.
Oct. 26, 2023 [Paper] Co-authored paper regarding formation history of the Wispy Terrain on the Saturnian moon Dione (corresponding author, Assoc. Prof. Balazs Bradak [Kobe Univ.]) has been published in the Remote Sensing.
Sep. 28, 2023 [Paper] Co-authored paper on irradiation experiments for plasma space weathering modelling.(corresponding author, Assoc. Prof. Tomoki Kimura [Tokyo Sci. Univ.]) has been published oin Earth, Planets, and Space.
Nov. 22, 2022 [Paper] Co-authored paper regarding formation history of the lineated terrain on the Jovian moon Europa (corresponding author, Assoc. Prof. Balazs Bradak [Kobe Univ.]) has been published in Icarus.
Sep. 21, 2021 [Keynote talk] Provided a talk of "For the next decades of the icy worlds' science and exploration" on the ISAS Planetary Exploration Workshop 2021 (20-24 Sep, 2021 @Online).
May 21, 2019 [Paper] Co-authored paper regarding the interior of Pluto (corresponding author, Assoc. Prof. Shunichi Kamata [Hokkaido Univ.]) has been published in the Nature Geoscience.

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