Two members of the Centre for Astrophysics and Planetary Science (CAPS) at the University of Kent travelled to Italy to present some of their work at the DySoN conference.
Prof Nigel J. Mason and Duncan V. Mifsud presented their latest results from the field of astrochemistry at the 6th International Conference on Dynamics of Systems on the Nanoscale (DySoN) and the 10th International Symposium on Atomic Cluster Collisions (ISACC) which were jointly held between October 18th-22nd in Santa Margherita Ligure, a picturesque resort town on the Ligurian coast in north-western Italy.
Initially scheduled for summer 2020, the conference had been postponed due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The conference, an interdisciplinary one by nature, brought together researchers from a wide range of academic disciplines, including: nuclear physics, radiation science, quantum biology, astrochemistry, and nanoscience, to share their results with the scientific community.
The subject of Prof Mason’s talk, entitled “Irradiation-driven transformations of ice deposits under astrochemical conditions” was a new methodology to understand the formation of molecules in astrophysical ices. This methodology, named Systems Astrochemistry, proposes to consider the astrochemical experiment as a complex system and therefore conduct experiments in which multiple parameters are varied simultaneously, as is currently done in the field of prebiotic chemistry. Prof Mason also chaired a session at the conference.
Duncan’s presentation, entitled “Sulphur astrochemistry in the laboratory: techniques to understand the formation of interstellar and planetary sulphur-bearing molecules”, included some of the latest results from his PhD research, including new insights into the formation of sulphur dioxide (SO2) ice on Europa, an icy moon of Jupiter which may possibly possess conditions suitable for life.
Sulphur at the surface of Europa is thought to be cycled through different molecular and icy forms as a result of the intense radiation environment present at the surface (top slide). However, questions remain as to the exact chemical nature of many of these transformations. As such, we have commissioned a new experimental facility named the Ice Chamber for Astrophysics-Astrochemistry (ICA) in Debrecen, Hungary (bottom slide) which simulates conditions at the surface of Europa and other astrophysical environments (high vacuum levels, cryogenic temperatures, intense radiation environments) and allows us to probe these chemical reactions using infrared spectroscopy and quadrupole mass spectrometry.