WE PROPOSE A LABORATORY EXPERIMENT DESIGNED TO TEST THE CARBON MONOXIDE SELF-SHIELDING (COSS) MODEL TO EXPLAIN THE OXYGEN ISOTOPE DISTRIBUTION IN THE EARLY SOLAR SYSTEM MATERIALS ARGUABLY ONE OF THE MOST FUNDAMENTAL PROBLEMS IN COSMOCHEMISTRY TODAY (WIENS ET AL. 1999; BURNETT ET AL. 2003; 2011; MCKEEGAN AND LESHIN 2001; YIN 2004; YOUNG 2007; MCKEEGAN ET AL. 2011; MARTY ET AL. 2011). SPECIFICALLY WE PROPOSE TO EXPERIMENTALLY VERIFY IF THE CARBON MONOXIDE (CO) PHOTODISSOCIATION AT VACUUM ULTRAVIOLET (VUV) WAVELENGTHS (90-110 NM) WOULD PRODUCE THE EXPECTED MASS INDEPENDENT OXYGEN ISOTOPE FRACTIONATION AS PREDICTED IN THE RECENTLY REVIVED SELF-SHIELDING MODEL (CLAYTON 2002; YURIMOTO AND KURAMOTO 2004; LYONS AND YOUNG 2005). THIS MODEL HAS BEEN INVOKED TO EXPLAIN THE PECULIAR OXYGEN ISOTOPE DISTRIBUTION OBSERVED IN EARLY SOLAR SYSTEM MATERIALS AND HAS A SPECIFIC PREDICTION FOR THE SUN S OXYGEN ISOTOPE COMPOSITION A TOP SCIENCE PRIORITY OF NASA'S GENESIS DISCOVERY MISSION (BURNETT ET AL. 2003; 2011). WE HAVE DEVELOPED AN EXPERIMENTAL SET-UP AND PROCEDURES NAMELY AN ULTRA HIGH-RESOLUTION TWO VUV LASER PHOTODISSOCIATION PHOTOIONIZATION TIME-OF-FLIGHT MASS SPECTROMETRY (2VUV-LPP-TOF-MS) THAT WOULD ENSURE THE EXPERIMENTAL CONDITIONS ARE REFLECTIVE OF THE SOLAR NEBULAR PHOTOCHEMISTRY OF CO. WE DESCRIBE OUR DESIGN CONCEPT AND DEMONSTRATE OUR UNIQUE CAPABILITY TO PERFORM THIS TIMELYEXPERIMENT ON ALL MAJOR BANDS WITH DATA OBTAINED FROM THE 105.17MN BAND (BAND 31) AS AN EXAMPLE. THE PROPOSED EXPERIMENT WILL BE PERFORMED IN VUV WAVELENGTH RANGE (90-110 NM). AN ULTRA-HIGH RESOLUTION VUV LASER WILL BE SENT ACROSS TWO SEPARATED MOLECULAR BEAMS IN SEQUENCE THE FIRST ONE IS FOR ATTENUATION OF LIGHT (SHIELDING) BY CO ABSORPTION AND THE SECOND ONE IS FOR FRAGMENTATIONOF CO BY PHOTODISSOCIATION. FOLLOWING PHOTODISSOCIATION OF CO ALL ISOTOPIC PHOTO-FRAGMENTS WILL BE DETECTED BY ANOTHER SPATIALLY OVERLAPPED BUT TEMPORALLY SLIGHTLY DELAYED PHOTOIONIZATION VUV LASER MEETING HEAD TO HEAD WITH THE FIRST VUV. ISOTOPIC EXCHANGE REACTIONS ARE PREVENTED AS NO COLLISION OCCURS DURING FREE EXPANSION OF THE MOLECULAR BEAM; COINCIDENT LINE SHIELDING FROM H2 ONCO PHOTODISSOCIATION WILL BE INCLUDED TO SIMULATE SOLAR NEBULA COMPOSITION; VARIOUS CO TEMPERATURES IN THE RANGE OF 10K TO 150K WILL BE USED TO TEST THE POSSIBLE ASTROPHYSICAL SITES OF SELF-SHIELDING WHICH ARE UNDER DEBATE IN RECENT SELF-SHIELDING MODELS (CLAYTON 2002; YURIMOTO AND KURAMOTO 2004; LYONS AND YOUNG 2005). THESE ARE JUST A FEW EXAMPLES OF THE CRITICAL ADVANTAGES OF OUR DESIGN WHEN COMPARED TO RECENT EXPERIMENTS BY CHAKRABORTY ET AL (2008). THERE ARE OVER 30 ABSORPTION BANDS OF CO IN VUV WAVELENGTH RANGE (90NM TO 110NM); OF THESE THE FIVE MOST IMPORTANT BANDS WHICH ACCOUNT FOR ABOUT 95% OF THE YIELD OF CO ISOTOPE-SELECTIVE PHOTODISSOCIATION WILL BE SELECTED FOR THE PROPOSED EXPERIMENT. THE SUCCESS OF THIS EXPERIMENT TOGETHER WITH THE HIGHLY ANTICIPATED OXYGEN ISOTOPE DATA FROM THE GENESIS MISSION (BURNETT 2011; MCKEEGAN ET AL. 2011; MARTY ET AL. 2011) WILL PROVIDE A CRUCIAL PIECEOF INFORMATION IN UNDERSTANDING THE PUZZLE OF THE OBSERVED OXYGEN ISOTOPE ANOMALIES IN THE SOLAR SYSTEM THAT HAVE BEEN KNOWN FOR OVER THREE DECADES (CLAYTON ET AL. 1973) BUT AS YET HAVE DEFIED A CONSENSUS EXPLANATION (CLAYTON 1993; MCKEEGAN AND LESHIN 2001; YIN 2004). IT IS UNACCEPTABLE TO DISTINGUISH PIECES OF ROCK FROM MARS OR VESTA BASED ON OXYGEN ISOTOPE COMPOSITION WITHOUT UNDERSTANDING HOW IT HAS ACQUIRED SUCH A COMPOSITION.
$180,034FY2014National Aeronautics and Space AdministrationNASA
University Of California, Davis