Amorphous and polycrystalline water ices in space environments
Abstract
Ices are an important reservoir of more complex molecular species in several space environments, containing information about the composition and formation of these regions. Water ice is the dominant constituent of interstellar ices in most lines of sight and is about 70 % of the composition in comets, being a key molecule in astrochemical models. It is believed that one of the reactive species possibly evaporated from the water ices is the hydronium ion, H_{3}O^{+}, which plays an important role in the oxygen chemistry network. This ion has been detected in the lunar surface of Enceladus and Titan, and toward the Sagittarius B2 molecular Clouds, where H_{2}O and OH were also identified. In this work, the ion desorption due to radiolysis in ices constituted by water at three different temperatures (40, 70 and 125 K) is studied, to investigate the different allotropic water ices. A discussion on the rate of H_{3}O^{+} and water delivered to gas phase, as well as the half-life of water ice grains, inside dense molecular clouds considering a constants cosmic ray flux is given. The ions desorbed from water ice have been mass/charge analyzed by a time-of-flight spectrometer. Among the results, it is seen that in the positive ion spectrum of high density amorphous water ice at 40 K the highest desorption yields (ejected ions/impact) correspond to H^{+}, H_{3}O^{+} and clusters formed by (H_{2}O)_{n}R^{+}, where R^{+} is H_{3}O^{+} and 1 ≤ n ≤ 25. At T = 125 K, the ice is in its low density polycrystalline form and new clusters are present, such as (H_{2}O)_{n}R^{+}, where R^{+} is H_{2}^{+} and H_{3}^{+} (for low n), beyond H_{3}O^{+}. Therefore, it is seen that (H_{2}O)_{n}H_{3}O^{+} series (with n between 1 and 25) is dominant in all cases. The H_{3}O^{+} desorption yield at 40 K is about 5times10^{-3} ions/impact. This value is 4-5 times higher than the one obtained at T > 125 K. This behavior is also seen to all series member and consequently to the sum (Yn).
- Publication:
-
41st COSPAR Scientific Assembly
- Pub Date:
- July 2016
- Bibcode:
- 2016cosp...41E..75A