Description:

The Planetary Systems Laboratory (693) in the Solar System Exploration Division (690) at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) seeks a qualified postdoctoral applicant to work in the Spectroscopy for Planetary ICes Environments (SPICE) laboratory. This position is strictly laboratory based, with the NPP project aim to generate both outer solar system and ISM-relevant ice analogs by performing laboratory IR transmission spectroscopy spanning the far- to near-IR.

To enhance the science return from past flight missions (e.g., ISO, Herschel, Cassini), current missions (e.g., SPHEREx, JWST, New Horizons), and to prepare for upcoming missions (e.g., Dragonfly, Astrophysics Far-IR Probe), a dedicated laboratory effort to determine the optical and chemical properties of pure, layered, and co-condensed ices embedded within a wide variety of astrophysical environments (e.g., outer solar system, protoplanetary and debris disks, etc.) is vital. This is especially true for dedicated experiments performed at far-IR wavelengths longward of ~20 um, over a large range of temperatures representing a diverse set of astrophysically-relevant environments, especially for water ice-containing co-condensed mixtures. The far-IR is a robust spectral region that comprises low energy intermolecular and lattice vibrational modes of many astrophysically-relevant ices, which provides unique views of the ice composition, ice structure, porosity, and its thermal history.

Since pure and layered ice experiments do not reproduce the characteristics of co-condensed ices, targeted co-condensed experiments must be performed to determine the ice band position, shape, and strength, as well as its optical properties, which are all innately unique to co-condensed ices, especially at far-IR wavelengths. Thus, a large emphasis of this NPP project will be placed on co-condensation studies.

Field of Science: Planetary Science
Advisors:

Carrie Anderson
carrie.m.anderson@nasa.gov
(301) 286-6925