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Comet science may stand at the precipice of revolutionary change. For
well over half a century, consensus scientific theory has proposed that
comets are icy bodies that formed billions of years ago in the solar
system's infancy. Comet activity, including the production of fila-
mentary jets and a cometary coma, is said to result from the sublimation of
ices as the comet's orbit brings it closer to the sun. However, for many years,
scientific discovery has done nothing to increase confidence in standard comet
theory. Close-up images of comet nuclei have revealed desiccated terrains with
nothing like the expected abundance of surface ice. And the hypothesized
subsurface comet ice remains conjecture. Scientists have never found the
theoretical vents or nozzles from which comet jets are thought to emanate. Just
one of many puzzles that demand new pathways of investigation. Electrical
theories of comets may provide such pathways. Many of the most surprising
comet discoveries were either predicted or become explicable by electrical
interpretations, including the discovery of fast moving electrons and electric
fields close to the nucleus of Comet 67P. The detection of the signature of water
molecules in cometary comas has long been thought to confirm the existence of
abundant subsurface comet ice. But is there a better explanation? For several
years, Thunderbolts colleague Dr. Franklin Anariba has developed concepts of
electrochemical reactions on comets which may be the cause of much comet
activity, including the production of the detected comet water. Recently, scientists
studying data on the Lovejoy comet C/2014 Q2 have reported findings that may
affirm many of the principles Dr. Anariba has proposed.
Today, Dr. Anariba offers a detailed analysis of these findings and explains
the electrochemical processes that may happen on comets. Let us put things in
perspective. After the completion of the Rosetta probe journey around comet
67P, the origin of water observed in the coma is not clear, especially since the
surface of the comet has been determined to be dark and dried. However, there are other
possibilities for the origin of such water. Let us discuss one possibility. In a recent
paper by Paganini et al, titled "Ground- based detection of deuterated water in
Comet C/2014 Q2 (also known as Lovejoy) at IR wavelengths" published in the
Astrophysical Journal Letters, Comet Lovejoy is studied via infrared
spectroscopy at an earth-based observatory using infrared emission lines
for water (H2O) and heavy water (HDO), where D refers to deuterium, which contains
1 proton, 2 neutrons and 1 electron, unlike hydrogen which contains one of each.
The study used a near-infrared spectrometer located at the Keck
Observatory during post-perihelion. The results suggest a water production rate
of 5.9 x 10^29 molecules per second or about 17,641,196
liters per second and a heavy water production rate of
3.6 x 10^26 molecules per second or about 11,355
liters per second. From these production rates,
the D/H ratio in Comet Lovejoy's water is extracted to be
3.02 x 10^-4 or more meaningfully about 1.94 versus
the Vienna Standard Mean Ocean Water D/H ratio, which is taken as the benchmark and
refers to the D/H ratio in the ocean here on earth. It is important to highlight, in this
report, that this D/H ratio was methodically obtained by avoiding
unnecessary systematic variables, such as measurements on different days, different
telescopes, as well as observations of water and heavy water separately. Subsequently,
this D/H ratio is compared against a measurement carried out pre-perihelion
via radiowave means which displayed a ratio of only 0.89 versus the Vienna
Standard Mean Ocean Water. In other words, the D/H ratio increases by a factor of
2.2 pre- to post-perihelion. This is of significance! In the manuscript
titled "67P Churyumov-Gerasimenko, a Jupiter family comet with a high D/H ratio"
by Altwegg et al., published in Science, a D/H ratio value of 5.3 x 1O^-4 is reported, which is
not consistent with previous Jupiter family or comets (JFC) data, strongly
suggesting that the D/H ratio of the Jupiter family of comets is highly
heterogeneous. The cause of this high D/H ratio is usually attributed to
deuterium enriched water-ice in the protosolar nebula (PSN). Since this solar
system formation is speculative, I will not elaborate on such explanation.
However, a recent article by Yao and Giapis titled "Dynamic deuterium enrichment in
cometary water via Eley-Rideal reactions," a different pathway for deuterium enrichment
is proposed: namely, the collision of cold (with 10-50 eV) and hyperthermal
(with 10-200 eV) water ions against deuterium-enriched surfaces. The
authors state: "Water ions in the extended coma are accelerated toward the nucleus,
where they collide with the outer nucleus crust of 67P. This crust is
dehydrated and includes typical cometary minerals, such as olivine
and pyroxene silicates, and carbonaceous refractory minerals. Likewise, cold water
ions moving away from the nucleus will
collide with dust particles in the extended coma, which have a chemical
composition similar to that of the nucleus crust." The authors were able to
demonstrate in the laboratory that silicon oxide and highly ordered graphitic
carbon absorbs deuterium atoms via the bombardment of heavy water cations (D2O+)
for 30 minutes at 200 eV, resulting in the formation of H2DO+
cations. This chemical pathway proposed can reasonably be called water
ion implantation on the surface or the nucleus and it is based on observational
facts, especially the reported presence of hyperthermal water ions in the
vicinity of comet 67P, although less certain on the nature of deuterated
surfaces on comets. The key concept is that electric fields lead the way for the
chemical reaction. I did previously state that a great number of chemical
compounds observed in the coma and surface of comets is being driven electrochemically by
energy provided through electric fields which accelerate ions to sufficient kinetic energies and
collision angles to result in bond formation processes. Therefore, it is
quite refreshing to see that other researchers are beginning to be
comfortable with the idea that a great of number of complex chemical reactions are
being driven by electrochemical means in the absence of solar radiation and/or high
temperatures. Provided the data reported for Comet Lovejoy indicating an increase
in the D/H ratio pre- and post- perihelion is subsequently validated,
I would argue that such data is an indirect indication of the influence of
the solar flux in the electrochemical formation of water and heavy water
observed in the coma and nucleus of comets. It is well known that deuterium is
synthesized in the atmospheres of stars, and this applies to the sun, which then
ejects deuterium via the solar flux in electric fields. As a comet approaches
the sun through an increasing voltage gradient, it encounters a higher deuterium density, which
translates to an increased electro- chemical heavy water formation,
providing an overall high D/H ratio as a function of heliocentric
distance. In summary, in this episode, I propose that heavy water formation
is not necessarily the result, although it can be to some extent, of water cation
implantation on deuterated surfaces, but rather, a direct electrochemical process
mediated by electric fields of concentrated deuterium contained in the solar flux
interacting with hydroxide ions originating from refractory minerals and carbonaceous
materials found in dust grains in the coma as well as on the surface of comets.
The complex chemical reactions observed on comets and other cosmic bodies are very
likely driven by electrochemical means at low temperatures and in the absence of solar radiation.
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