22-EPN3-118: Irradiation of Enceladus Ice Analogues by Simulating Saturn’s Plasma Environment
Visit by Grace Richards of the Open University (UK) to to TA2.12 Atomki-Queen’s University Ice Laboratory for Astrochemistry (Hungary).
Dates of visit: 19-24 April 2023
Report Summary: Enceladus orbits within Saturn’s magnetosphere, which contains cold plasma composed of water group ions such as O+, OH+, and H2O+. Irradiation of Enceladus’ surface by this plasma can change the volatile composition of the ice.
This program of experiments aimed to characterise the extent to which the Enceladus surface material is weathered by Saturn’s radiation environment, by exposing ice analogues to the ECR ion source in the AQUILA ice chamber. Ices, composed of H2O, CO2, NH3, and CH4, and with a temperature of 70K, were irradiated using relevant water group ions of energies between 10 – 45 keV. They were monitored throughout the irradiation process using FTIR spectroscopy and Quadrupole Mass Spectrometry (QMS). Temperature Programmed Desorption (TPD) studies were also carried out to investigate the radiation products in the ices.
