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R. Wu, D. Judge (USC), H. Chen, H. Lu, B. Cheng (NSRRC), National Synchrotron Research Radiation Center Team
We have carried out laboratory simulation experiments on cometary and planetary satellite type ices to study their chemical evolution resulting from solar photolysis processes. In this paper we report a detailed study of the spectral identification of IR absorption features of new products in addition to their production yields produced through EUV photon-induced chemical reactions in pure CO ices at 10 K. In order to understand the correlation between the production yield of a given new product and the electronic states of the CO molecule we have carried out photolysis of CO pure ice systems at several EUV photon energies, namely, at 40.78, 35.0, 30.0, 25.0, 21.23, 11.27, and 10.196 eV. The new molecules produced were found to be primarily C3O2, C2O, CO2, and CO3. We have also carried out similar investigation on the H2O+CO mixed ice systems with two different compositions, i.e., 1:1 and 4:1, at 10 K. From the present work it is clear that the photon-induced product yields depend on photon energy. As discussed in our previous reports, the EUV photon irradiation appears to produce more new absorption features and higher production yields than the VUV counterpart. The results obtained from the present study are important to our understanding of chemical synthesis in ice analogs. This research is based on work supported by the NASA Planetary Atmospheres Program under Grant NAG5-11960.
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Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 35 #4
© 2003. The American Astronomical Soceity.