ISIS Neutron and Muon Source Data Journal
This is a page describing data taken during an experiment at the ISIS Neutron and Muon Source. Information about the ISIS Neutron and Muon Source can be found at https://www.isis.stfc.ac.uk.
Expanding NaCl Concentration Studies to Understand the Geochemical Landscape of Icy Moons
Abstract: Habitable liquid water environments are thought to exist on Mars, and the ice-covered moons of Jupiter and Saturn. The geochemistry of these environments are diverse and reflect the different origins and thermo-geochemical histories. Understanding aqueous habitability is reduced to measures of bulk geochemical parameters such as temperature, pH, pressure, water activity and ionic strength. Changes in one or all of these parameters translates into a modification in the structure of water and shell coordination around dissolved ions. Fundamentally, water must be available to use and dissolved ion structures cannot be disruptive to biological molecules. Neutron scattering methods allow us to directly reveal water structure and can provide a new unifying metric for habitability. Sodium and chlorine are two of the most water-soluble elements resulting in them dominating the major ion geochemistry of aqueous systems within our solar system. Our work aims to build a solid framework for exploring water structure and will contribute to future studies of multi-salt systems. From this work we hope to explore the contributions of these ions to water structure and validate against water activity measurements and modelled results.
Principal Investigator: Dr Daniel Irving
Experimenter: Dr Zachary Amato
Experimenter: Dr Anna Herlihy
Experimenter: Mr Liam Perera
Local Contact: Dr Tom Headen
DOI: 10.5286/ISIS.E.RB2620823
ISIS Experiment Number: RB2620823
| Part DOI | Instrument | Public release date | Download Link |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10.5286/ISIS.E.RB2620823-1 | NIMROD | 10 June 2029 | Download |
| 10.5286/ISIS.E.RB2620823-2 | NIMROD | 12 June 2029 | Download |
Publisher: STFC ISIS Neutron and Muon Source
Data format: RAW/Nexus
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Data Citation
The recommended format for citing this dataset in a research
publication is as:
[author], [date], [title], [publisher],
[doi]
For Example:
Dr Daniel Irving et al; (2026): Expanding NaCl Concentration Studies to Understand the Geochemical Landscape of Icy Moons, STFC ISIS Neutron and Muon Source, https://doi.org/10.5286/ISIS.E.RB2620823
Data is released under the CC-BY-4.0 license.
