Extraction of amino acids from aerogel for analysis by capillary electrophoresis. implications for a mission concept to Enceladus’ Plume

Ocean worlds like Europa and Enceladusin the outer solar system are prime targets in the search for life beyond Earth. Enceladusis particularly interesting due to the presence of a water plumeejecting from the south polar region. The recent discovery of H2 in the plume, in addition to the presence of previously observed organic compounds, highlights the possibility of life in this moon. The plumeprovides materials from the underlying ocean that could be collected simply by flying through it. The presence of the plumemeans that material from the ocean is available for collection during a flyby, without the need for landing or complex sample handling operations such as scoopingor drilling. An attractive approach to preserve the organics in particles collected during flyby encounters would be to utilize silica aerogel, the material used to collect particles at hypervelocityduring the Stardust mission. Here we demonstrate amino acids can be extracted from aerogelsimply by adding water. This simple liquid extraction method could be implemented during a mission prior to analysis with a liquid-based technique like capillary electrophoresis. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved