Ultraviolet photolysis of amino acids in a 100 K water ice matrix: Application to the outer Solar System bodies

To link to full-text access for this article, visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.icarus.2006.10.018 Byline: Grazyna E. Orzechowska, Jay D. Goguen, Paul V. Johnson, Alexandre Tsapin, Isik Kanik Keywords: Ices; Exobiology; Organic chemistry; Satellites; surfaces; Europa Abstract: We report the rates of decomposition by ultraviolet (UV) photolysis of four amino acids in millimeter-thick crystalline water ice matrices at 100 K to constrain the survivability of these important organic molecules within ice lying near the surfaces of outer Solar System bodies. We UV-irradiated crystalline ice samples containing known concentrations of the amino acids glycine, aspartic acid, glutamic acid, and phenylalanine, then we measured the surviving concentrations using high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) with fluorescence detection. From these experiments, we determine photolytic decomposition rates and half-lives. The half-life varies linearly with the ice thickness for all acids studied here. For example, glycine is the most resistant to photolytic destruction with a half-life of 50, 12, and 3.7 h in 1.6, 0.28, and 0.14 mm thick ices, respectively. We explain this linear variation of half-life with thickness as a consequence of extinction, mostly due to scattering, within these macroscopically thick ice samples. Applied to low latitude surface ice on Jupiter's satellite Europa, this analysis indicates that the concentration of any of these amino acids within the top meter of similar ice will be halved within a [approximately equal to]10 year timescale. Author Affiliation: Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Mail Stop 183-601, California Institute of Technology, 4800 Oak Grove Drive, Pasadena, CA 91109-8099, USA Article History: Received 30 June 2006; Revised 1 September 2006