Laboratory Measurement of Volatile Ice Vapor Pressures with a Quartz Crystal Microbalance

Abstract

Nitrogen, carbon monoxide, and methane are key materials in the far outer Solar System where their high volatility enables them to sublimate, potentially driving activity at very low temperatures. Knowledge of their vapor pressures and latent heats of sublimation at relevant temperatures is needed to model the processes involved. We describe a method for using a quartz crystal microbalance to measure the sublimation flux of these volatile ices in the free molecular flow regime, accounting for the simultaneous sublimation from and condensation onto the quartz crystal to derive vapor pressures and latent heats of sublimation. We find vapor pressures to be somewhat lower than previous estimates in literature, with carbon monoxide being the most discrepant of the three species, almost an order of magnitude lower than had been thought. These results have important implications across a variety of astrophysical and planetary environments.

References in corpus (3)

• Two-Dimensional Transport of Solids in Viscous Protoplanetary Disks
• Dynamic Sublimation Pressure and the Catastrophic Breakup of Comet ISON
• The Sublimative Evolution of (486958) Arrokoth

Cited by in corpus (3)

• Moderate D/H Ratios in Methane Ice on Eris and Makemake as Evidence of Hydrothermal or Metamorphic Processes in Their Interiors: Geochemical Analysis
• The Equilibrium Vapor Pressures of Ammonia and Oxygen Ices at Outer Solar System Temperatures
• Outbursts Upon Cooling of Low-Temperature Binary Mixtures: Experiments and Their Planetary Implications