Thermally Activated Transport in Icy Environments

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The Jovian moon Europa and Saturnian moon Enceladus both have deep, salty oceans. These oceans move water to and through the icy surfaces of the satellites. The Principal Investigator will study the mechanism moving the salty water through and above the surfaces using a new laboratory method that accurately represents the transportation methods being tested. He will then model the transport phenomena and fundamental processes that are important on moons such as Europa and Enceladus. This project serves the national interest as it increases our scientific knowledge about how these processes occur in the frozen outer parts of the Solar System, and helps to shape the design and operation of U.S. spacecraft now planned to probe the surface and subsurface regions these moons. The PI's research group will work with the 32nd Street School to develop science lessons.Thermal vents are created using pulsed laser heating of Au nanoparticles dosed with NaCl. Combining laser heating and nanoimprint lithography enables results from many billions of separate nanoexperiments to be recorded simultaneously following a single pulse. The experiments establish the extent to which salt at the bottom of the film is dissolved and carried to surfaces of solid water films when it is subjected to a burst of heat from below. This modeled methodology will be extended to the transport of salty fluids on moons such as Europa and Enceladus. Members of the PI's research group will work with the teacher of Chemistry and Honors Chemistry at 32nd Street School near USC in their Secondary Science Program. They will develop experiments and lessons that meet the newly-adopted Next Generation Science Curricular Standards for high schools and bring hands-on experiments to students.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.