Related papers: Energy and temperature dependencies for electron-i…
Electron irradiation of water-rich ices plays a significant role in initiating the chemical and physical processes on the surface of airless icy bodies in radiation environments such as Europa and Enceladus, as well as on the Moon, comets,…
Naturally occurring ices lie on both interstellar dust grains and on celestial objects, such as those in the outer solar system. These ices are continu- ously subjected to irradiation by ions from the solar wind and/or cosmic rays, which…
The surfaces of some icy moons, such as Jupiter's moon Europa, are heavily bombarded by energetic particles that can alter the surface materials and affect the composition of its exosphere. Detection of CO2 on Europa's surface indicate that…
Context. The long-term evolution of an atmosphere and the remote detectability of its chemical constituents are susceptible to how the atmospheric gas responds to stellar irradiation. The response remains poorly characterized for water and…
Irradiation by energetic ions, electrons, and UV photons induces sputtering and chemical processes (radiolysis) in the surfaces of icy moons, comets, and icy grains. Laboratory experiments, both of ideal surfaces and of more complex and…
The radiation chemistry and physics of solid N2O have been increasingly studied due to its potential presence on the surfaces of cold, outer Solar System bodies. However, to date, no study has investigated systematically the influence of…
Water ice covers the surface of various objects in the outer Solar system. Within the heliopause, surface ice is constantly bombarded and sputtered by energetic particles from the solar wind and magnetospheres. We report a laboratory…
We use a laboratory facility to study the sputtering properties of centimeter-thick porous water ice subjected to the bombardment of ions and electrons to better understand the formation of exospheres of the icy moons of Jupiter. Our ice…
Sputtering by solar wind ions is a key process driving the ejection of high-energy particles into the exospheres of airless bodies like asteroids, Mercury and the Moon. In view of upcoming missions which will deliver new in-situ data on…
Observations of Europa's leading hemisphere reveal elevated H2O2 in the warmer, low latitude chaos terrains compared to the colder, polar regions. This distribution disagrees with prior laboratory radiolysis studies of pure water ice, which…
Photoionization by high-energy photons creates nonthermal electrons with a broad range of energies that heat and chemically transform the atmospheres of planets. The specifics of the interactions are notably different when the gas is atomic…
CO2 has been detected in both the tenuous exosphere and surface chaos regions of Europa, but it is still unclear whether this CO2 is generated in situ by radiolysis or whether it is directly delivered by the ocean. In this work, we study…
Direct impact excitation by precipitating electrons is believed to be the main source of 630.0 nm emissions in the cusp ionosphere. However, this paper investigates a different source, 630.0 emissions caused by thermally excited atomic…
Soft x-ray radiation from the sun is responsible for the production of high energy photoelectrons in the D and E regions of the ionosphere, where they deposit most of their ionization energy. The photoelectrons created by this process are…
Interstellar grain mantles present in dense interstellar clouds are in constant exchange with the gas phase via accretion and desorption mechanisms such as UV, X-ray photodesorption, cosmic ray induced sputtering, grain thermal…
H$_2$O$_2$ is part of Europa's water-ice radiolytic cycle and a potential source of oxidants to Europa's subsurface ocean. However, factors controlling the concentration of this critical surface species remain unclear. Though laboratory…
Electron impact ionization is critical in producing the ionospheres on many planetary bodies and, as discussed here, is critical for interpreting spacecraft and telescopic observations of the tenuous atmospheres of the icy Galilean…
The electron temperature is a crucial parameter for the determination of the gas-phase metallicity of galaxies. Low electron temperature is expected for metal-rich galaxies, theoretically. We report the discovery that temperature, as…
The effect of electron irradiation on 2D materials is an important topic, both for the correct interpretation of electron microscopy experiments and for possible applications in electron lithography. After the importance of including…
The detection of ozone (O3) in the surface ices of Ganymede, Jupiters largest moon, and of the Saturnian moons Rhea and Dione, has motivated several studies on the route of formation of this species. Previous studies have successfully…