Infrared Spectroscopy and Radiation Chemistry of Ices in the Cosmic Ice Laboratory

The NASA Postdoctoral Program (NPP) offers unique research opportunities to highly-talented scientists to engage in ongoing NASA research projects at a NASA Center, NASA Headquarters, or at a NASA-affiliated research institute. These one- to three-year fellowships are competitive and are designed to advance NASA's missions in space science, Earth science, aeronautics, space operations, exploration systems, and astrobiology. This specific research opportunity is with the Astrochemistry Laboratory in the Solar System Exploration Division at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. The research group specializes in studying the spectra, chemistry, and physical properties of ices relevant to comets, icy satellites and planets, and the coatings of dust grains in the interstellar medium. The laboratory uses a cryostat to prepare ices at temperatures as low as 10 K and employs infrared spectroscopy to study radiation chemistry. The facility is interfaced to a Van de Graaff accelerator producing protons up to 1 MeV and a hydrogen-discharge lamp supplying UV photons to simulate cosmic ray and UV radiation exposure. Research opportunities include proton irradiation experiments to determine destruction rate constants of organic compounds of astrobiological interest, formation pathways of molecules, determination of infrared optical constants of ices, and low-temperature reaction chemistry in ices relevant to Europa, Titan, Enceladus, and other planetary environments.