Modeling Spectra of Solid Methane By Linda Henneberg Mentor: Dr. Kris Andersen Northern Arizona University SpaceGrant Symposium April 2009

Outline Why is modeling methane important? Getting to know solid methane Methods and procedure Data and results Future work

Why is this important? Only way to gather information about astronomical objects. Image from:

Methane Image from: e:Methane-3D-balls.png CH 4 Bond angle is o H H H HC

Phase II Image from: I. Nakahata, et al. (1999) Jmol:

Methods Generalized gradient approximation (PBE) 6x6x6 k-point grid Latin for “first principles” 400 eV cutoff energy

Data and Analysis a = 4.65 ang

Future Work Find the lattice constant for phase II methane Analyze the vibrational spectra – Compare to experiments and observations Repeat the process for nitrogen

Thank you! My mentor, Dr. Kris Andersen NASA, for providing funding for the SpaceGrant program Kathleen Stigmon and Dr. Nadine Barlow, for all the work they put into this program

Questions?