Irradiation of Condensed Gases: Physical Mechanisms and Astrophysical Implications

该奖项由美国国家科学基金会颁发，将支持对一系列材料表面溅射的实验室测量。这些材料的溅射模拟了类似的过程，由紫外线辐射、电子和离子在太阳系外的大小物体（特别是彗星、卫星、行星环）表面引起。对辐照样品热升华速率的影响也将进行研究。这项研究包括用数值模型来解释实验室测量结果，有望提高人们对溅射引起的物理和化学变化的理解。这种理解对于解释太阳系天体以及星际介质（即星际颗粒）的观测数据至关重要。由于研究人员的技能和出色的过去表现，他们最先进的实验室设施，以及目前在该研究领域缺乏可靠的数据，预计这项研究将取得非凡的成果。

94-19501 Johnson This award by NSF will support laboratory measurements of sputtering from surfaces of a range of materials. Sputtering from these materials simulates similar processes, induced by UV radiation, electrons, and ions, on the surfaces of small and large bodies in the outer solar system (in particular, comets, satellites, planetary rings). Effects of thermal sublimation rates of the irradiated samples will also be studied. The research, which includes numerical modeling to interpret the laboratory measurements, is expected to lead to an improved understanding of the physical and chemical changes caused by sputtering. This understanding will be crucial for interpreting observational data of bodies in the solar system as well as of the interstellar medium (i.e., interstellar grains). It is expected that the research will be exceptionally productive because of the investigators' skills and outstanding past performance, their state-of-the-art laboratory facility, and the current dearth of reliable data in this research area.