$10,493: NASA New York Space Grant (NYSG) Consortium

Freezing point depression at high pressure in salt-water solutions: Implications for the composition of icy worlds
Principal Investigator: Heather Watson, John D. MacArthur Assistant Professor of Physics and Astronomy; Co-Investigator: George Shaw, professor emeritus of geology

Union’s long history of partnership in the NASA New York Space Grant program continues to offer research initiation grant opportunities for Union faculty researchers. Through this grant, the project team will undertake a series of high pressure/low temperature measurements of the melting/freezing behavior of a wide range of salt-water solutions that have the potential to be directly relevant to the compositions of icy moons. Knowledge of these behaviors will have bearing on the understanding of the structure and temperatures of icy moons' interiors.