Evolution of Ices: From Molecular Cloud to Ocean

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Ices of various forms are found throughout our Milky Way Galaxy, from the large "molecular clouds" in which stars and planets form, in interstellar space, and in our own Solar System, on the surfaces of the Earth, the satellites of Jupiter and Saturn, on asteroids, and on comets. It is very likely that water wasdelivered to the Earth during its formative years by the impacts of comets and asteroids in the kind of event that exterminated the dinosaurs 60 million years ago. Furthermore, these impacting bodies carry organic material, which may have been crucial to the emergence of life on Earth: comets and asteroids bring life and death! This project will study how cosmic ice evolves, from the environments of embryonic stars, to the ices and even oceans in the Solar System. We will be using laboratory experiments, including the world's most powerful light source, the Diamond Light Source in Oxfordshire, to study how the ices change as they are exposed to simulated cosmic environments such as cosmic radiation and ultraviolet light. This work might give us a glimpse as to how life began on Earth.