Laboratory studies of cometary ice analogues

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Reference: Schmitt B., Espinasse S., Grim R. J. A., Greenberg J. M., Klinger J. (1989). Laboratory studies of cometary ice analogues. Proc. Physics and Mechanics of Cometary Materials, 302, 65 - 69.

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Title: Laboratory studies of cometary ice analogues
Abstract: Laboratory studies were performed in order to simulate the physico-chemical processes that are likely to occur in the near surface layers of short and intermediate period comets. Pure H2O ice as well as CO:H2O, CO2:H2O, CH4:H2O, CO:CO2:H2O, and NH3:H2O ice mixtures were studied in the temperature range between 10 and 180 K. The evolution of the composition of ice mixtures, the crystallization of H2O ice as well as the formation and decompostion of clathrate hydrate by different processes were studied as a function of temperature and time. Using the results together with numerical modeling, predictions are made about the survival of amorphous ice, CO, CO2, CH4, and NH3 in the near surface layers of short period comets. The likeliness of finding clathrate and molecular hydrates is discussed. It is proposed that the analytical methods developed here could be fruitfully adapted to the analysis of returned comet samples.
Keywords: spectroscopy, thermodynamics, transmission, mid-IR, thermal process, molecular solid, ice, clathrate hydrate, CO, CO2, H2O, comets
Content: sample, thermodynamic data, planetary sciences

Document type: conference paper
Year: 1989
Title: Proceedings of an International Workshop on Physics and Mechanics of Cometary Materials
Volume: 302
Pages: 65 - 69
Pages number: 5

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