Abstract:
Impact ionization mass spectrometers, historically referred to as dust analyzers, have played a crucial role in planetary science mission investigations in recent decades, and will continue to do so for decades to come. Perhaps most notably, the compositional information gained from ice grains at Enceladus using the Cosmic Dust Analyzer (CDA) on board Cassini and the planned investigations within the next decade at Europa using the SUrface Dust Analyzer (SUDA) onboard Europa Clipper both illustrate the incredible science potential enabled by these instruments. However, tracing mass spectral features to ice grain composition in impact ionization mass spectrometry is non-trivial as the clustering of charged species and their relative peak areas vary as a function of both ice grain composition and encounter velocity. This is further complicated by a lack of impact ionization laboratory measurements that replicate the physics of an ice grain impact to inform the compositional measurements made by spaceborne dust detectors. Previous modeling and experimental efforts have been employed to predict or reproduce high-salt impact mass spectra collected by spaceborne dust detectors, however these studies did not involve the in-situ analysis of a true ice grain impact event. I will present and discuss hypervelocity ice grain impact mass spectra collected between 2.0 - 4.2 km/s for simple salts expected to be present at Ocean Worlds, as well as preliminary results on impact mass spectra of potential biosignature molecules, and discuss how high-fidelity laboratory measurements will be important to ensure accurate quantitative chemical information from ice grain impact mass spectra collected by Europa Clipper.
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