Structure and dynamics of amorphous water ice

Acceleration of 1I/'Oumuamua from radiolytically produced H2 in H2O ice

In 2017, 1I/'Oumuamua was identified as the first known interstellar object in the Solar System1. Although typical cometary activity tracers were not detected2-6, 'Oumuamua showed a notable non-gravitational acceleration7. So far, there has been no explanation that can reconcile these constraints8. Owing to energetic considerations, outgassing of hyper-volatile molecules is favoured over heavier volatiles such as H2O and CO2 (ref. 9). However, there are theoretical and/or observational inconsistencies10 with existing models invoking the sublimation of pure H2 (ref. 9), N2 (ref. 11) and CO (ref. 12). Non-outgassing explanations require fine-tuned formation mechanisms and/or unrealistic progenitor production rates7,13-15. Here we report that the acceleration of 'Oumuamua is due to the release of entrapped molecular hydrogen that formed through energetic processing of an H2O-rich icy body. In this model, 'Oumuamua began as an icy planetesimal that was irradiated at low temperatures by cosmic rays during its interstellar journey, and experienced warming during its passage through the Solar System. This explanation is supported by a large body of experimental work showing that H2 is efficiently and generically produced from H2O ice processing, and that the entrapped H2 is released over a broad range of temperatures during annealing of the amorphous water matrix16-22. We show that this mechanism can explain many of 'Oumuamua's peculiar properties without fine-tuning. This provides further support3 that 'Oumuamua originated as a planetesimal relic broadly similar to Solar System comets.

A comparative study of single-particle cryo-EM with liquid-nitrogen and liquid-helium cooling

Radiation damage is the most fundamental limitation for achieving high resolution in electron cryo-microscopy (cryo-EM) of biological samples. The effects of radiation damage are reduced by liquid-helium cooling, although the use of liquid helium is more challenging than that of liquid nitrogen. To date, the benefits of liquid-nitrogen and liquid-helium cooling for single-particle cryo-EM have not been compared quantitatively. With recent technical and computational advances in cryo-EM image recording and processing, such a comparison now seems timely. This study aims to evaluate the relative merits of liquid-helium cooling in present-day single-particle analysis, taking advantage of direct electron detectors. Two data sets for recombinant mouse heavy-chain apoferritin cooled with liquid-nitrogen or liquid-helium to 85 or 17 K were collected, processed and compared. No improvement in terms of resolution or Coulomb potential map quality was found for liquid-helium cooling. Interestingly, beam-induced motion was found to be significantly higher with liquid-helium cooling, especially within the most valuable first few frames of an exposure, thus counteracting any potential benefit of better cryoprotection that liquid-helium cooling may offer for single-particle cryo-EM.

The Molecular Volcano Revisited: Determination of Crack Propagation and Distribution During the Crystallization of Nanoscale Amorphous Solid Water Films

Temperature programmed desorption (TPD) is utilized to determine the length distribution of cracks formed through amorphous solid water (ASW) during crystallization. This distribution is determined by monitoring how the thickness of an ASW overlayer alters desorption of an underlayer of O2. As deposited, ASW prevents desorption of O2. During crystallization, cracks form through the ASW and open a path to vacuum, which allows O2 to escape in a rapid episodic release known as the "molecular volcano". Sufficiently thick ASW overlayers further trap O2 resulting in a second, higher temperature, O2 desorption peak. The evolution of this trapping peak with overlayer thickness is the basis for determining the length distribution of crystallization-induced cracks spanning the ASW. Reflection absorption infrared spectroscopy (RAIRS) and TPD of multicomponent parfait structures of ASW, O2, and Kr indicate that a preponderance of these cracks propagate down from the outer surface of the ASW.

Deposition and crystallization studies of thin amorphous solid water films on Ru(0001) and on CO-precovered Ru(0001)

The deposition and the isothermal crystallization kinetics of thin amorphous solid water (ASW) films on both Ru(0001) and CO-precovered Ru(0001) have been investigated in real time by simultaneously employing helium atom scattering, infrared reflection absorption spectroscopy, and isothermal temperature-programmed desorption. During ASW deposition, the interaction between water and the substrate depends critically on the amount of preadsorbed CO. However, the mechanism and kinetics of the crystallization of approximately 50 layers thick ASW film were found to be independent of the amount of preadsorbed CO. We demonstrate that crystallization occurs through random nucleation events in the bulk of the material, followed by homogeneous growth, for solid water on both substrates. The morphological change involving the formation of three-dimensional grains of crystalline ice results in the exposure of the water monolayer just above the substrate to the vacuum during the crystallization process on both substrates.

Radiation effects in water ice: A near-edge x-ray absorption fine structure study

The changes in the structure and composition of vapor-deposited ice films irradiated at 20 K with soft x-ray photons (3-900 eV) and their subsequent evolution with temperatures between 20 and 150 K have been investigated by near-edge x-ray absorption fine structure spectroscopy (NEXAFS) at the oxygen K edge. We observe the hydroxyl OH, the atomic oxygen O, and the hydroperoxyl HO(2) radicals, as well as the oxygen O(2) and hydrogen peroxide H(2)O(2) molecules in irradiated porous amorphous solid water (p-ASW) and crystalline (I(cryst)) ice films. The evolution of their concentrations with the temperature indicates that HO(2), O(2), and H(2)O(2) result from a simple step reaction fuelled by OH, where O(2) is a product of HO(2) and HO(2) a product of H(2)O(2). The local order of ice is also modified, whatever the initial structure is. The crystalline ice I(cryst) becomes amorphous. The high-density amorphous phase (I(a)h) of ice is observed after irradiation of the p-ASW film, whose initial structure is the normal low-density form of the amorphous ice (I(a)l). The phase I(a)h is thus peculiar to irradiated ice and does not exist in the as-deposited ice films. A new "very high density" amorphous phase-we call I(a)vh-is obtained after warming at 50 K the irradiated p-ASW ice. This phase is stable up to 90 K and partially transforms into crystalline ice at 150 K.

Interaction of D2 with H2O amorphous ice studied by temperature-programed desorption experiments

The gas-surface interaction of molecular hydrogen D2 with a thin film of porous amorphous solid water (ASW) grown at 10 K by slow vapor deposition has been studied by temperature-programmed-desorption (TPD) experiments. Molecular hydrogen diffuses rapidly into the porous network of the ice. The D2 desorption occurring between 10 and 30 K is considered here as a good probe of the effective surface of ASW interacting with the gas. The desorption kinetics have been systematically measured at various coverages. A careful analysis based on the Arrhenius plot method has provided the D2 binding energies as a function of the coverage. Asymmetric and broad distributions of binding energies were found, with a maximum population peaking at low energy. We propose a model for the desorption kinetics that assumes a complete thermal equilibrium of the molecules with the ice film. The sample is characterized by a distribution of adsorption sites that are filled according to a Fermi-Dirac statistic law. The TPD curves can be simulated and fitted to provide the parameters describing the distribution of the molecules as a function of their binding energy. This approach contributes to a correct description of the interaction of molecular hydrogen with the surface of possibly porous grain mantles in the interstellar medium.

Temporal evolution of an ultrathin, noncrystalline ice deposit at crystallization near 160 K studied by FT-IR reflection-absorption spectroscopy

The temporal evolution of the OH stretching modes of a noncrystalline ice deposit upon annealing followed by crystallization near 160 K has been investigated by FT-IR reflection–absorption spectroscopy. Using the earlier theoretical results from Whalley (E. Whalley. Can. J. Chem. 55, 3429 (1977)) and from Buch and Devlin (V. Buch and J.P. Devlin. J. Chem. Phys. 110, 3437 (1999)), the most prominent changes in these modes have been characterized for the first time. A dynamical picture of the structural transformation during crystallization has been developed, and it supports the observation that crystallization proceeds directly from a noncrystalline to a crystalline state without any long-lived intermediate state structurally different from its noncrystalline predecessor.Key words: crystallization, noncrystalline ice, FT-IR reflection–absorption spectroscopy, temporary evolution.

Hydrogen clusters in clathrate hydrate

High-pressure Raman, infrared, x-ray, and neutron studies show that H2 and H2O mixtures crystallize into the sII clathrate structure with an approximate H2/H2O molar ratio of 1:2. The clathrate cages are multiply occupied, with a cluster of two H2 molecules in the small cage and four in the large cage. Substantial softening and splitting of hydrogen vibrons indicate increased intermolecular interactions. The quenched clathrate is stable up to 145 kelvin at ambient pressure. Retention of hydrogen at such high temperatures could help its condensation in planetary nebulae and may play a key role in the evolution of icy bodies.

Cyanoacetylene adsorption on amorphous and crystalline water ice films: investigation through matrix isolation and quantum study

The structure and energy properties of the 1:1 complexes formed between cyanoacetylene and H2O (D2O) are investigated using FT-IR matrix isolation spectroscopy and ab initio calculations at the MP2/ 6-31G(d,p) level. Cyanoacetylene adsorption and desorption on amorphous ice film are monitored by FT-IR using the temperature-programmed desorption method. In an argon matrix, two types of 1:1 complexes are observed. The first one corresponds to the NH structure, which involves a hydrogen bond with the terminal nitrogen of cyanoacetylene. The second corresponds to the HO form, which involves a hydrogen bond from the cyanoacetylene to the oxygen of water. This last complex is the more stable (DeltaE = -8.1 kJ/mol.). As obtained in argon matrixes, two kinds of adsorption site are observed between HC3N and ice. The first one, stable between 25 and 45 K is characterized by a nu(OH) shift similar to the one observed in matrix for the NH complex. The second, stable at higher temperatures (between 45 and 110 K), corresponds to an interaction with the dangling oxygen site of ice and is similar to the HO complex observed in matrix. From theoretical calculations (DFT method combined with a plane wave basis set and ultrasoft pseudopotentials), it is shown that, for this adsorption site, the HC3N moiety is flattened on the ice surface and stabilized by a long-distance interaction ( approximately 3 A) between one dangling OH and the pi system of the C triple bond C triple bond. The HC3N desorption occurs between 110 and 140 K, and the associated desorption energy is 39 kJ/mol. This value is in good agreement with the first principle calculation based on density functional theory and ultrasoft pseudopotentials (34 kJ/mol). These calculations confirm the electrostatic nature of the interaction forces. A small amount of cyanoacetylene is incorporated into the bulk and desorbs at the onset of the ice crystallization near 145 K. In these two kinds of experiments, HC3N acts as both an electrophilic and a nucleophilic molecule.

Contributions of icy planetesimals to the Earth's early atmosphere

Laboratory experiments on the trapping of gases by ice forming at low temperatures implicate comets as major carriers of the heavy noble gases to the inner planets. These icy planetesimals may also have brought the nitrogen compounds that ultimately produced atmospheric N2. However, if the sample of three comets analyzed so far is typical, the Earth's oceans cannot have been produced by comets alone, they require an additional source of water with low D/H. The highly fractionated neon in the Earth's atmosphere may also indicate the importance of non-icy carriers of volatiles. The most important additional carrier is probably the rocky material comprising the bulk of the mass of these planets. Venus may require a contribution from icy planetesimals formed at the low temperatures characteristic of the Kuiper Belt.

Probing the structure of cometary ice

Computer simulations of bulk and vapor deposited amorphous ices are presented. The structure of the bulk low density amorphous ice is in good agreement with experiments on pressure disordered amorphous ice. Both the low density bulk ice and the vapor deposited ices exhibit strong ordering. Vapor deposition of hot (300 K) water molecules onto a cold (77 K) substrate yields less porous ices than deposition of cold (77 K) water molecules onto a cold substrate. Both vapor deposited ices are more porous than the bulk amorphous ice. The structure of bulk high density amorphous ice is only in fair agreement with experimental results. Attempts to simulate high density amorphous ice via vapor deposition were not successful. Electron diffraction results on vapor deposited amorphous ice indicate that the temperature of the nucleation of the cubic phase depends upon the amount of time between the deposition and the onset of crystallization, suggesting that freshly deposited ice layers reconstruct on times of the order of hours. The temperature dependence of the microporosity of the vapor deposited amorphous ices might affect laboratory experiments that are aimed at simulating astrophysical ices in the context of the origin of prebiotic organic material and its transport to the Earth.

Surface Ices and the Atmospheric Composition of Pluto

Observations of the 1.4- to 2.4-micrometer spectrum of Pluto reveal absorptions of carbon monoxide and nitrogen ices and confirm the presence of solid methane. Frozen nitrogen is more abundant than the other two ices by a factor of about 50; gaseous nitrogen must therefore be the major atmospheric constituent. The absence of carbon dioxide absorptions is one of several differences between the spectra of Pluto and Triton in this region. Both worlds carry information about the composition of the solar nebula and the processes by which icy planetesimals formed.

Possible cometary origin of heavy noble gases in the atmospheres of Venus, Earth and Mars

Models that trace the origin of noble gases in the atmospheres of the terrestrial planets (Venus, Earth and Mars) to the 'planetary component' in chondritic meteorites confront several problems. The 'missing' xenon in the atmospheres of Mars and Earth is one of the most obvious; this gas is not hidden or trapped in surface materials. On Venus, the absolute abundances of neon and argon per gram of rock are higher even than those in carbonaceous chondrites, whereas the relative abundances of argon and krypton are closer to solar than to chondritic values (there is only an upper limit on xenon). Pepin has developed a model that emphasizes hydrodynamic escape of early, massive hydrogen atmospheres to explain the abundances and isotope ratios of noble gases on all three planets. We have previously suggested that the unusual abundances of heavy noble gases on Venus might be explained by the impact of a low-temperature comet. Further consideration of the probable history of the martian atmosphere, the noble-gas data from the (Mars-derived) SNC meteorites and laboratory experiments on the trapping of noble gases in ice lead us to propose here that the noble gases in the atmospheres of all of the terrestrial planets are dominated by a mixture of an internal component and contribution from impacting icy planetesimals (comets). If true, this hypothesis illustrates the importance of impacts in determining the volatile inventories of these planets.