Journal
ASTROPHYSICAL JOURNAL
Volume 812, Issue 2, Pages -Publisher
IOP PUBLISHING LTD
DOI: 10.1088/0004-637X/812/2/150
Keywords
astrochemistry; Kuiper Belt: general; molecular data; molecular processes; planets and satellites: surfaces; solid state: refractory
Categories
Funding
- NASA's New Horizons mission program
- NASA's Cassini Data Analysis Program
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration through the NASA Astrobiology Institute [NNH13ZDA017C]
- Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, of the U.S. Department of Energy [DE-AC02-05CH11231]
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Radiation processing of the surface ices of outer Solar System bodies may be an important process for the production of complex chemical species. The refractory materials resulting from radiation processing of known ices are thought to impart to them a red or brown color, as perceived in the visible spectral region. In this work, we analyzed the refractory materials produced from the 1.2-keV electron bombardment of low-temperature N-2-, CH4-, and CO-containing ices (100:1:1), which simulates the radiation from the secondary electrons produced by cosmic ray bombardment of the surface ices of Pluto. Despite starting with extremely simple ices dominated by N-2, electron irradiation processing results in the production of refractory material with complex oxygen-and nitrogen-bearing organic molecules. These refractory materials were studied at room temperature using multiple analytical techniques including Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, X-ray absorption near-edge structure (XANES) spectroscopy, and gas chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry (GC-MS). Infrared spectra of the refractory material suggest the presence of alcohols, carboxylic acids, ketones, aldehydes, amines, and nitriles. XANES spectra of the material indicate the presence of carboxyl groups, amides, urea, and nitriles, and are thus consistent with the IR data. Atomic abundance ratios for the bulk composition of these residues from XANES analysis show that the organic residues are extremely N-rich, having ratios of N/C similar to 0.9 and O/C similar to 0.2. Finally, GC-MS data reveal that the residues contain urea as well as numerous carboxylic acids, some of which are of interest for prebiotic and biological chemistries.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available