Method for detecting and quantitating capture of organic molecules in hypervelocity impacts

Enceladus is a prime candidate in the solar system for in-depth astrobiological studies searching for habitability and life because it has a liquid water ocean with significant organic content and ongoing cryovolcanic activity. The presence of ice plumes that jet up through fissures in the ice crust...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Bahar Kazemi, James S. New, Matin Golozar, Laura D. Casto, Anna L. Butterworth, Richard A. Mathies
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Elsevier 2021-01-01
Series:MethodsX
Subjects:
Online Access:http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2215016121000327
id doaj-63613781a8ed466fa80c90fd55741fea
record_format Article
spelling doaj-63613781a8ed466fa80c90fd55741fea2021-02-11T04:21:13ZengElsevierMethodsX2215-01612021-01-018101239Method for detecting and quantitating capture of organic molecules in hypervelocity impactsBahar Kazemi0James S. New1Matin Golozar2Laura D. Casto3Anna L. Butterworth4Richard A. Mathies5Department of Chemistry, University of California, Berkeley, United StatesSchool of Physical Sciences, University of Kent, United Kingdom; Space Sciences Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley, United StatesDepartment of Chemistry, University of California, Berkeley, United StatesDepartment of Chemistry, University of California, Berkeley, United States; Space Sciences Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley, United StatesSpace Sciences Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley, United StatesDepartment of Chemistry, University of California, Berkeley, United States; Space Sciences Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley, United States; Corresponding author at: Department of Chemistry, University of California, Berkeley, United States.Enceladus is a prime candidate in the solar system for in-depth astrobiological studies searching for habitability and life because it has a liquid water ocean with significant organic content and ongoing cryovolcanic activity. The presence of ice plumes that jet up through fissures in the ice crust covering the sub-surface ocean, enables remote sampling and in-situ analysis via a fly-by mission. However, capture and transport of organic materials to organic analyzers presents distinctive challenges as it is unknown whether, and to what extent, organic molecules imbedded in ice particles can be captured and survive hypervelocity impacts. This manuscript provides a fluorescence microscopic method to parametrically determine the amount of an organic fluorescent tracer dye, Pacific Blue™ (PB) deposited on a metallic surface. This method can be used to measure the capture and survival outcomes of terrestrial hypervelocity impact experiments where an ice projectile labeled with Pacific Blue impacts a soft metal surface. This work is an important step in the advancement of instruments like the Enceladus Organic Analyzer for detecting biosignatures in an Enceladus plume fly-by mission.An apparatus consisting of a substrate humidification shroud coupled with an epifluorescence microscope with CCD detector is developed to measure the intensity of quantitatively deposited Pacific Blue droplets under controlled humidity.Calibration curves are produced that relate the integrated fluorescence intensity of humidified PB droplets on metal foils to the number of PB molecules deposited.To demonstrate the utility of this method, our calibrations are used to analyze and quantitate organic capture and survival (up to 11% capture efficiency) following ice particle impacts at a velocity of 1.7 km/s on an aluminum substrate.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2215016121000327Biosignature detectionEnceladus plume capture methodsQuantitative epifluorescence microscopyEnceladus organic analyzer
collection DOAJ
language English
format Article
sources DOAJ
author Bahar Kazemi
James S. New
Matin Golozar
Laura D. Casto
Anna L. Butterworth
Richard A. Mathies
spellingShingle Bahar Kazemi
James S. New
Matin Golozar
Laura D. Casto
Anna L. Butterworth
Richard A. Mathies
Method for detecting and quantitating capture of organic molecules in hypervelocity impacts
MethodsX
Biosignature detection
Enceladus plume capture methods
Quantitative epifluorescence microscopy
Enceladus organic analyzer
author_facet Bahar Kazemi
James S. New
Matin Golozar
Laura D. Casto
Anna L. Butterworth
Richard A. Mathies
author_sort Bahar Kazemi
title Method for detecting and quantitating capture of organic molecules in hypervelocity impacts
title_short Method for detecting and quantitating capture of organic molecules in hypervelocity impacts
title_full Method for detecting and quantitating capture of organic molecules in hypervelocity impacts
title_fullStr Method for detecting and quantitating capture of organic molecules in hypervelocity impacts
title_full_unstemmed Method for detecting and quantitating capture of organic molecules in hypervelocity impacts
title_sort method for detecting and quantitating capture of organic molecules in hypervelocity impacts
publisher Elsevier
series MethodsX
issn 2215-0161
publishDate 2021-01-01
description Enceladus is a prime candidate in the solar system for in-depth astrobiological studies searching for habitability and life because it has a liquid water ocean with significant organic content and ongoing cryovolcanic activity. The presence of ice plumes that jet up through fissures in the ice crust covering the sub-surface ocean, enables remote sampling and in-situ analysis via a fly-by mission. However, capture and transport of organic materials to organic analyzers presents distinctive challenges as it is unknown whether, and to what extent, organic molecules imbedded in ice particles can be captured and survive hypervelocity impacts. This manuscript provides a fluorescence microscopic method to parametrically determine the amount of an organic fluorescent tracer dye, Pacific Blue™ (PB) deposited on a metallic surface. This method can be used to measure the capture and survival outcomes of terrestrial hypervelocity impact experiments where an ice projectile labeled with Pacific Blue impacts a soft metal surface. This work is an important step in the advancement of instruments like the Enceladus Organic Analyzer for detecting biosignatures in an Enceladus plume fly-by mission.An apparatus consisting of a substrate humidification shroud coupled with an epifluorescence microscope with CCD detector is developed to measure the intensity of quantitatively deposited Pacific Blue droplets under controlled humidity.Calibration curves are produced that relate the integrated fluorescence intensity of humidified PB droplets on metal foils to the number of PB molecules deposited.To demonstrate the utility of this method, our calibrations are used to analyze and quantitate organic capture and survival (up to 11% capture efficiency) following ice particle impacts at a velocity of 1.7 km/s on an aluminum substrate.
topic Biosignature detection
Enceladus plume capture methods
Quantitative epifluorescence microscopy
Enceladus organic analyzer
url http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2215016121000327
work_keys_str_mv AT baharkazemi methodfordetectingandquantitatingcaptureoforganicmoleculesinhypervelocityimpacts
AT jamessnew methodfordetectingandquantitatingcaptureoforganicmoleculesinhypervelocityimpacts
AT matingolozar methodfordetectingandquantitatingcaptureoforganicmoleculesinhypervelocityimpacts
AT lauradcasto methodfordetectingandquantitatingcaptureoforganicmoleculesinhypervelocityimpacts
AT annalbutterworth methodfordetectingandquantitatingcaptureoforganicmoleculesinhypervelocityimpacts
AT richardamathies methodfordetectingandquantitatingcaptureoforganicmoleculesinhypervelocityimpacts
_version_ 1724274605309296640