Emission spectroscopy for the temperature measurement of salt-water ice during hypervelocity impact

Current understanding of icy Solar System bodies, such as Europa and Enceladus, suggests they may contain favourable environmental conditions to synthesise biologically significant molecules. Laboratory impact flash measurements from icy targets can be utilised to constrain the temperatures required for the shock-synthesis of these biologically important species. This abstract details temperature measurement of salt-water ice during hypervelocity impact using in-situ emission spectroscopy. This preliminary study utilises different projectile speeds and materials to assess the range of generated temperatures during impact. The relative intensities of the averaged Na 589 nm and 819 nm doublet emission lines originating from the target ice were used to determine approximate peak temperatures for each impact experiment using a Boltzmann distribution calculation. All determined temperatures using this method were between 3000 K and 3420 K. Furthermore, shots with similar impacts speeds showed a small temperature difference of 140 K despite the distinctly different projectile material properties.