Journal
NATURE COMMUNICATIONS
Volume 8, Issue -, Pages -Publisher
NATURE PUBLISHING GROUP
DOI: 10.1038/ncomms15298
Keywords
-
Categories
Funding
- National Science Foundation/Department of Energy Partnership for Basic Plasma Science and Engineering [1202567]
- Division Of Physics
- Direct For Mathematical & Physical Scien [1202567] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Abundant molecular oxygen was discovered in the coma of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Its origin was ascribed to primordial gaseous O-2 incorporated into the nucleus during the comet's formation. This thesis was put forward after discounting several O-2 production mechanisms in comets, including photolysis and radiolysis of water, solar wind-surface interactions and gas-phase collisions. Here we report an original Eley-Rideal reaction mechanism, which permits direct O-2 formation in single collisions of energetic water ions with oxidized cometary surface analogues. The reaction proceeds by H2O+ abstracting a surface O-atom, then forming an excited precursor state, which dissociates to produce O-2(-). Subsequent photo-detachment leads to molecular O-2, whose presence in the coma may thus be linked directly to water molecules and their interaction with the solar wind. This abiotic O-2 production mechanism is consistent with reported trends in the 67P coma and raises awareness of the role of energetic negative ions in comets.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available