Frozen water molecules are one of the most abundant compounds in the universe. They have an important role both on the inside and on the surface of various celestial bodies in the solar system.
On earth, ice forms a giant glacier that covers part of the surface.Meanwhile, Pluto and large satellites such as Europa, Ganymede, Titan, and Enceladus have a landscape that are mostly formed from ice.
In these worlds, ice is not only a surface layer, but also the main material that forms hard chunks, mountains, even volcanoes. In extreme conditions, such as very high pressure or very low temperature, ice can crystallize into a structure that has never been formed naturally on earth.
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Finding and studying the structure of this kind of ice crystal in ice months, for example Ganymede, will open insight into the inside of the object. The analogy that is often used is how the rocks of the earth mantle pushed to the surface gives instructions on the geology of our planet.
In the laboratory, ice structures are usually studied with the help of X-rays or neutron files. Though, such a large instrument is not possible to be brought along with space rides. Responding to this limitation, Christina Tonauer with her team at Universität Innsbruck, Austria, conducted a new experiment that shows the types of ice can be distinguished using infrared spectroscopy.
this method can be applied in remote observation, for example through NASA James Webb (JWST) outer space telescope or Mission Juice (Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer) owned by Esa which is on the way to the Jupiter system. The results of this study were published at Physical Review Letters in the beginning of last summer.
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According to Tonauer, the ice he produced in the laboratory can only be formed naturally in space. His interest in planets and astronomy combined with physics chemical backgrounds, thus leading to this unique research.
When he studied his doctoral studies in early 2020, JWST had not yet been launched. However, it is clear that the telescope will open up new possibilities in the study of the ice months in the outside solar system.
When examining previous research, Tonauer and the team realized that most ice spectroscopy experiments were carried out at a relatively long infrared wavelength, a reach that could not be captured by JWST. Therefore, they are interested in exploring the near-Ir-Ir infrared spectrum, which is precisely in accordance with the capabilities of the new observatory.
21 phase is
Until 2025,21 different ice phases have been identified in laboratory experiments,even though only one for