THz time-domain spectroscopy of mixed CO₂-CH₃OH interstellar ice analogs
-
1.
National Radio Astronomy Observatory
-
2.
California Institute of Technology
-
3.
The Open University
-
4.
University of Chicago
Abstract
The icy mantles of interstellar dust grains are the birthplaces of the primordial prebiotic molecular inventory that may eventually seed nascent solar systems and the planets and planetesimals that form therein. Here, we present a study of two of the most abundant species in these ices after water: carbon dioxide (CO₂) and methanol (CH₃OH), using TeraHertz (THz) time-domain spectroscopy and mid-infrared spectroscopy. We study pure and mixed-ices of these species, and demonstrate the power of the THz region of the spectrum to elucidate the long-range structure (i.e. crystalline versus amorphous) of the ice, the degree of segregation of these species within the ice, and the thermal history of the species within the ice. Finally, we comment on the utility of the THz transitions arising from these ices for use in astronomical observations of interstellar ices.
Additional Information
© 2016 the Owner Societies. Received 28th January 2016, Accepted 1st June 2016, First published online 07 Jun 2016. This article is part of themed collection: Prebiotic chemistry and the molecular origins of life. The authors thank P. Carroll, I. Finneran, and M. Kelley for their assistance with spectrometer development. B. A. M. thanks A. Remijan for his support. The authors thank the anonymous referee for a detailed reading of the manuscript which significantly improved the quality of the work. S. I. acknowledges funding through a Marie Curie Fellowship (FP1-PEOPLE-2011-IOF-300957) and recent support by the Royal Society. M. A. A. acknowledges current support from a Yen Postdoctoral Fellowship from the Institute for Biophysical Dynamics at the University of Chicago. The National Radio Astronomy Observatory is a facility of the National Science Foundation operated under cooperative agreement by Associated Universities, Inc.Attached Files
Published - c6cp00632a.pdf
Accepted Version - nihms-1055893.pdf
Submitted - 1606.03058v1.pdf
Supplemental Material - c6cp00632a1.zip
Files
1606.03058v1.pdf
Additional details
Additional titles
- Alternative title
- THz time-domain spectroscopy of mixed CO2-CH3OH interstellar ice analogs
Identifiers
- PMCID
- PMC6842323
- Eprint ID
- 68468
- Resolver ID
- CaltechAUTHORS:20160617-090511707
Related works
- Describes
- https://arxiv.org/abs/1606.03058 (URL)
Funding
- Marie Curie Fellowship
- FP1-PEOPLE-2011-IOF-300957
- Royal Society
- University of Chicago
- NSF
Dates
- Created
-
2016-06-17Created from EPrint's datestamp field
- Updated
-
2022-02-17Created from EPrint's last_modified field
Caltech Custom Metadata
- Caltech groups
- Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences (GPS)