Liquid water on Titan: a structural study of ammonia-water solutions at low temperature

Titan is Saturn’s largest moon, and a target of NASA's Dragonfly mission. It is an icy world whose surface likely hosts periodic interactions between organic-rich dust, and water-ice melt, rich in ammonia. We are interested in exploring these interactions and the role of ammonia in the habitability of Titan, and ocean worlds in general. This study is designed to create a mimetic surficial melt of ammonia-water ice at STP and complements the research of the Dragonfly mission that will study organic dunes at Selk crater. Our initial objectives are to establish the extent of ammonia’s perturbation of water’s hydrogen bond network and the mechanism by which this is effected. The results of this experiment will inform the design of biological experiments that address how the ammonia in such a melt impacts the self-assembly of amino acids, and the hydration of biomolecules.