Plume Grain Sampling at Hypervelocity: Implications for Astrobiology Investigations
Whitepaper #054 submitted to the Planetary Science and Astrobiology Decadal Survey 2023-2032. Topics: laboratory studies; life and prebiotic organics; ocean worlds
by Morgan Cable, Sarah E. Waller, Rob Hodyss, Amy E. Hofmann, Michael J. Malaska, Robert E. Continetti, Andres Jaramillo-Botero, Bernd Abel, Frank Postberg, Morgan E. C. Miller, Sally Burke, Anton Belousov, Fabian Klenner, Nick Tallarida, James Lambert, Steve Fuerstenau, and Zach Ulibarri
Published onMar 18, 2021
Plume Grain Sampling at Hypervelocity: Implications for Astrobiology Investigations
We address whether astrobiology investigations can be made at hypervelocity, i.e., does biosignature detection have a speed limit? Recent work shows that the best speed to volatilize and ionize biomolecules in plume ice grains is 4–6 km/s. NASA should continue to invest in facilities, modeling and mass spectral libraries to understand this fully.
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC-BY 4.0)
