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2010 Annual Science Report

University of Hawaii, Manoa Reporting  |  SEP 2009 – AUG 2010

Ice Chemistry Experiments

Project Summary

A variety of astrobiological experiments have been conducted to look at the formation and degredation of biologically important species under space simulated conditions.

4 Institutions
3 Teams
13 Publications
0 Field Sites
Field Sites

Project Progress

Searching for Main Belt Comets with the Pan-STARRS 1 Survey Telescope

The Pan-STARRS1 (PS1) project is an all-sky survey using a 1.8-meter telescope on Haleakala in Hawaii. We have developed a system (“stamp store”) for storing and archiving intermediate static-sky subtracted images for transient detections, like asteroids. Normally, these images would be deleted, but we need them to apply specialized photometry to search for comet-like activity. This system will archive and organize approximately 40 terabytes of data over the 3.5-year lifetime of the project. Our approach for searching for MBC activity is based on searching for the brightest segment around a point source, and it is incorporated into a data processing pipeline that automatically polls new PS1 asteroid detections, performs specialized photometry on images in the above stamp store, and accumulates statistics used in deciding whether an object is an MBC candidate.

We have been engaged in a search for more Main Belt Comets (MBCs) in data from the newly operational Pan-STARRS1 (PS1) survey telescope on Haleakala. This is the first year that PS1 has been running steadily, producing terabytes of image data and hundreds of thousands of asteroid detections. Using our specialized pipeline, we have been analyzing Main Melt asteroid detections for signs of cometary activity (see Figure). We have found what appears to be a statistical excess of activity in the expected direction as opposed to unphysical directions. Over the next year, we will continue mining PS1 data and following up candidates with time on other telescopes, for which we have significant allocations. Using our specialized pipeline designed to search postage stamp images of asteroids for tail activity, we have been analyzing Main Melt asteroid detections for signs of cometary activity (see figure). In a preliminary batch of data from the spring of 2010, we have found what appears to be a statistical excess of activity in the expected direction as opposed to three unphysical orthogonal directions, yielding 5 to 10 potential MBC candidates. Over the next year, we will continue searching PS1 data, improving and extending our search algorithms. We will also follow up candidates with time on other telescopes, for which we have been allocated 14 hours of CFHT time, 6 nights of UH 2.2m time, and 6 nights of SMARTS 1.3m time. In deeper exposures, we hope to see direct evidence of activity that was detected statistically in PS1.

This project will eventually yield a full measure of the MBC population, will help determine the prevalence of water in the inner Solar System, and will provide likely provide targets for possible NASA missions to visit these bodies.

Publications

  • Bennett, C. J., Hama, T., Kim, Y. S., Kawasaki, M., & Kaiser, R. I. (2010). LABORATORY STUDIES ON THE FORMATION OF FORMIC ACID (HCOOH) IN INTERSTELLAR AND COMETARY ICES. The Astrophysical Journal, 727(1), 27. doi:10.1088/0004-637x/727/1/27

  • Bennett, C. J., Jones, B., Knox, E., Perry, J., Kim, Y. S., & Kaiser, R. I. (2010). MECHANISTICAL STUDIES ON THE FORMATION AND NATURE OF THE “XCN” (OCN – ) SPECIES IN INTERSTELLAR ICES. The Astrophysical Journal, 723(1), 641–648. doi:10.1088/0004-637x/723/1/641

  • Evans, N. L., Bennett, C. J., Ullrich, S., & Kaiser, R. I. (2011). ON THE INTERACTION OF ADENINE WITH IONIZING RADIATION: MECHANISTICAL STUDIES AND ASTROBIOLOGICAL IMPLICATIONS. The Astrophysical Journal, 730(2), 69. doi:10.1088/0004-637x/730/2/69

  • He, J., Gao, K., Vidali, G., Bennett, C. J., & Kaiser, R. I. (2010). FORMATION OF MOLECULAR HYDROGEN FROM METHANE ICE. The Astrophysical Journal, 721(2), 1656–1662. doi:10.1088/0004-637x/721/2/1656

  • Jones, B. M., Bennett, C. J., & Kaiser, R. I. (2011). MECHANISTICAL STUDIES ON THE PRODUCTION OF FORMAMIDE (H 2 NCHO) WITHIN INTERSTELLAR ICE ANALOGS. The Astrophysical Journal, 734(2), 78. doi:10.1088/0004-637x/734/2/78

  • Jones, B. M., Zhang, F., Kaiser, R. I., Jamal, A., Mebel, A. M., Cordiner, M. A., & Charnley, S. B. (2010). Formation of benzene in the interstellar medium. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 108(2), 452–457. doi:10.1073/pnas.1012468108

  • Jones, B., Matsyutenko, P., Su, N. C., Chang, A. H. H., & Kaiser, R. I. (2010). Crossed Molecular Beam Study on the Ground State Reaction of Atomic Boron [B( 2 P j )] with Hydrogen Cyanide [HCN]. The Journal of Physical Chemistry A, 114(34), 8999–9006. doi:10.1021/jp104426f

  • Jones, B., Zhang, F., Maksyutenko, P., Mebel, A. M., & Kaiser, R. I. (2010). Crossed Molecular Beam Study on the Formation of Phenylacetylene and Its Relevance to Titan’s Atmosphere. The Journal of Physical Chemistry A, 114(16), 5256–5262. doi:10.1021/jp912054p

  • Kim, Y. S., & Kaiser, R. I. (2011). ON THE FORMATION OF AMINES (RNH 2 ) AND THE CYANIDE ANION (CN – ) IN ELECTRON-IRRADIATED AMMONIA-HYDROCARBON INTERSTELLAR MODEL ICES. The Astrophysical Journal, 729(1), 68. doi:10.1088/0004-637x/729/1/68

  • Zhang, F., Jones, B., Maksyutenko, P., Kaiser, R. I., Chin, C., Kislov, V. V., & Mebel, A. M. (2010). Formation of the Phenyl Radical [C 6 H 5 (X 2 A 1 )] under Single Collision Conditions: A Crossed Molecular Beam and ab Initio Study. Journal of the American Chemical Society, 132(8), 2672–2683. doi:10.1021/ja908559v

  • Bennett, C.J., Guo, H., Jia, L., Ennis, C., Qi, F. & Kaiser, R.I.  (Submitted).  Pyrolysis of Polymers Investigated by Tunable Synchrotron Vacuum Ultraviolet Photoionization Mass Spectrometry.  International Journal of Mass Spectrometry.
  • Quinto-Hernandez, A., Bennett, C.J., Kim, Y.S., Wodtke, A.M. & Kaiser, R.I.  (Accepted).  On the Interaction of Methyl Azide (CH3N3) Ices with Ionizing Radiation and Implications to Titan’s Chemistry.  ApJ.
  • PROJECT INVESTIGATORS:
  • PROJECT MEMBERS:
    Chris Bennett
    Co-Investigator

    Brant Jones
    Co-Investigator

    Ralf Kaiser
    Co-Investigator

  • RELATED OBJECTIVES:
    Objective 3.1
    Sources of prebiotic materials and catalysts