Hydrogen Peroxide and Water Ice Out of Equilibrium: Implications for the Outer Solar System

Details Hydrogen Peroxide and Water Ice Out of Equilibrium: Implications for the Outer Solar System Hydrogen Peroxide and Water Ice Out of Equilibrium: Implications for the Outer Solar System

May 2006

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2006agusm.p23a..05l&link_type=abstract

American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2007, abstract #P23A-05

Physics

5410 Composition (1060, 3672), 5415 Erosion And Weathering, 5422 Ices, 5470 Surface Materials And Properties, 6221 Europa

Scientific paper

The detection of molecules such as H2O2 and O3 provide direct evidence for the importance of radiation processes in the outer solar system. Although the concentrations of these molecules are low, e.g. 0.13% for H2O2 at Europa's surface, it is possible that they could affect the surface chemistry significantly. The first question one needs to answer is how these molecules are situated in the water ice, i.e. do they exist in pure aggregates, dispersed in the water, in small clusters, etc. For H2O2 our previous results show that the 3.5 μm infrared absorption band of H2O2 is extremely sensitive to its environment. Thus, matching laboratory spectra of water-hydrogen peroxide mixtures to remote spectra enabled us to determine which phase the hydrogen peroxide exists on Europa. While H2O2 appears to be mixed with water ice on Europa, we were interested in understanding what would happen to H2O2 formed in places that could reach higher temperatures, where water could be lost by sublimation. Our new results show that at temperatures where water sublimation occurs, the dihydrate thermally decomposes, enriching the amount of H2O2 that is present, which leaves open the possibility to find high concentrations of H2O2 on any object where radiation and high temperatures are present.

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