First Year Project - investigate Photodetachment rate at Saturn
A significant surprise of the Cassini mission was the discovery of negatively charged ions (O-, OH-, H2O-) in the plumes of Enceladus. So far from the Sun, a reduced solar photon flux means these molecules gain hang onto their excess electron for much longer than at the Earth. But how long do these molecules exist for? If the answer is sufficiently long they might be transported far away from where they are produced and therefore could also be found in many other locations around Saturn. This project will build upon the wave physics, maths and python programming skills you will have learnt in your first year. You will take the solar spectrum as a function of wavelength, and perform a simple calculation involving particles cross-sections to deduce a reaction rate. Cassini measurements will provide the inputs to your calculations and subsequent steps could involve building a basic model of the production and loss rates.