Infrared Transmission and Reflection of Titan Aerosol Analogues

Speaker: Ashley Walker is an astrochemist, planetary scientist, and science communicator. She received her B.S. in Chemistry from Chicago State University where she became the first astrochemist in the university’s history. Ashley has interned at Harvard University, understanding the ice chemistry of early planet-forming disks and Johns Hopkins University understanding the aerosol analogs on Saturn’s moon, Titan. She was a post-baccalaureate intern at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in the Spice Lab. In the Spice Lab, she specialized in the cloud chemistry of planetary atmospheres on Titan. She has been featured in an array of interviews which includes Scientific American, BBC America’s “Space Week”, Katie Couric’s “Thank you Notes”, and is one of the faces of NASA. She advocates for students of color and highlights Black scientists during Black History Month. She is also the founder of #BlackInAstro week, co-founder of #BlackInChem and #BlackInPhysics week, and a committee member for AAS CSMA and the Women Of Color Project.

Saturn's moon, Titan, is the only body in the solar system with a thick nitrogen atmosphere that may be similar to that of the Early Earth. Photochemistry in Titan's atmosphere, composed mainly of nitrogen and methane, produces incredibly complex organic materials. The purpose of this work is to understand the composition of these organic materials through the use of laboratory atmosphere simulation experiments. The Planetary HAZE Research Chamber (PHAZER) at Johns Hopkins University operated by the Hörst Lab group has been used to simulate a variety of solar system and exoplanet atmospheres including that of Titan. In this chamber, nitrogen and methane gases flow past cold plasma in order to create aerosols called "tholins"; experiments such as these have been used to improve our understanding of the chemistry in Titan's atmosphere for decades. The particles generated in these experiments are deposited as thin films and then analyzed using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). FTIR provides information regarding the chemical composition and optical properties of the particles and can be compared to remote sensing observations of Titan's atmosphere. We review and compare our spectral data to tholins from previous experiments to provide a better understanding on the habitability of Titan.
Information for the online link:
958 9346 1978
066711