Ferdinand Stolz

TL;DR: The detection of complex organic molecules with masses higher than 200 atomic mass units in ice grains emitted from Enceladus indicates the presence of a thin organic-rich layer on top of the moon’s subsurface ocean.

TL;DR: This work investigates with an analog experiment the spectral appearance of amino acids, fatty acids, and peptides in water ice grains, together with their detection limits, as applicable to spaceborne mass spectrometers, and finds the detection limits of these key biosignatures to be at the μM or nM level.

TL;DR: The survivability and ionization efficiency of large organic molecules during impact ionization appears to be significantly improved when they are protected by a frozen water matrix, infer from the experimental results that encounter velocities of 4-6 km/s are most appropriate forimpact ionization mass spectrometers to detect and discriminate between abiotic and biotic signatures.

TL;DR: It is shown that charge separation naturally occurs if water droplets/clusters or ice particles with embedded charge carriers encounter a high energy impact with subsequent dispersion - even if the involved kinetic energy is significantly below the molecular ionization energy.

TL;DR: It is shown that the analogue experiment can reproduce impact ionization mass spectra of ice grains obtained over a wide range of impact speeds, aiding the quantitative analyses ofmass spectra from space.