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[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kjg_RIj-LRc]

Header image: A view of the instrument, built by Ryan Cole (PhDMechEngr'21), as the experiment replicates the conditions on exoplanets, causing the experiment to glow with heat.

Scientists do not need to travel light-years away to chart the atmospheres of exoplanets, thanks to research happening in the Paul M. Rady Department of Mechanical Engineering with scientists at the (JPL).

Ryan Cole (PhDMechEngr’21) has developed an experiment that recreates the actual climate of planets beyond our solar system inside a 2,000 lb. instrument at Professor Greg Rieker’s lab on the University of ŷ���ڱ���Ƶ Boulder campus. By reaching the same high-temperature and high-pressure conditions found on many exoplanets, the instrument can map the gases in their atmospheres, which could one day help humanity find life on other planets.

“If we looked at Earth’s atmosphere, we would know that life is here because we see methane, carbon dioxide, all these different markers that say something is living here,” Rieker said. “We can look at the chemical signatures of exoplanets as well. If we see the right combination of gases, it could be an indicator that something is alive there.”

Rieker and Cole’s work can contribute to exoplanet transit spectroscopy – a research method to observe the composition of an exoplanet’s atmosphere. Scientists use a telescope to look at the light passing through it. As the light interacts with gases in the atmosphere, those gases absorb the photons as they move through.

“Scientists need a map for how to interpret what the light is telling us when it gets here,” Rieker said. “That is where Ryan’s experiment comes in. As we create this little microcosm of that exoplanet’s atmosphere in our lab, we send in our own characterized light with lasers and study the photons that come out. We can measure the changes and map how the light is absorbed.”

In collaboration with scientists at JPL, Cole and Rieker’s experiment combines sensor measurements with computational models to help detect the different gases on exoplanets. While Cole built the instrument that replicates the exoplanets’ climates and measures how light is being absorbed at those exotic conditions, JPL's lab supplied the tool that interprets the measurements.

Their research could optimize telescopes like the , which as of mid-December, is set to launch Dec. 24 from the European Space Agency’s site in French Guiana.

“The James Webb Space Telescope and others like Hubble are looking at the ultimate horizon of what humans can see,” Cole said. “Greg and I are trying to make their visions a little clearer. Our laboratory measurements can help to interpret the telescopes’ observations of distant planetary atmospheres.”

There are endless expanses of the universe for these telescopes to explore – more than 4,800 confirmed exoplanets and about 7,900 more that NASA says could be planets. With Rieker and Cole’s experiment factored into the expedition, our understanding of exoplanets and the gases in their atmospheres can be improved – and therefore, it also advances the search for extraterrestrial life.

How the instrument works

“There really are not many systems out there that can reach the high-temperature, high-pressure conditions that we reach,” Cole said. “Not only do we need to reach those conditions, we also need the temperature and pressure to be extremely uniform and well-known. Achieving these criteria is one of the most unique aspects of our experiment.”

The size and scope of the instrument Cole developed is what allows them to reach the high-temperatures and high-pressures that are seen on exoplanets. The experiment inside the piece of equipment can get up to 1,000 degrees Kelvin, which is about 1,340 degrees Fahrenheit.

The 2,000 lb. instrument also has thick steel walls that are designed to reach 100 atmospheres. To put that into context, Earth’s mean pressure at sea level is one atmosphere.

Starting in 2016, when he joined Rieker’s lab, Cole had to work through about five iterations of the high-temperature, high-pressure cell before getting it right.

“Ryan is the first one to do it,” Rieker said. “He has created datasets that are really close to perfect.”

Once the conditions are reached inside Cole’s instrument, the team sends light through the experiment from frequency comb lasers, a technology that was the basis of Nobel-Prize winning research at the University of ŷ���ڱ���Ƶ Boulder and the . The laser has hundreds of thousands of wavelengths of light that are very well-behaved, making it an ideal tool to study light-matter interactions.

“We pass the laser through this environment and in doing so, we record how the laser light interacts with the gas that we have confined in the core of this unique experiment,” Cole said. “We measure how the light has been absorbed at different frequencies, which can be used to interpret observations of actual exoplanetary atmospheres.”

Those measurements then go through JPL’s interpretation tool. That computational model extracts the fundamental quantum parameters that enable the team to map how the atmosphere’s gas molecules will interact with light at any condition.

Rieker compared the relationship between the measurements they attain and the parameters that JPL supplies to a JPEG, the standard format for image data. While we see the photo, the JPEG data is the code, or set of instructions, for the image.

In this case, the equipment in Rieker’s lab provides the photo – the exoplanet conditions and light passing through its atmosphere. The JPL tool provides the JPEG code – the data that describes how the light is interacting with gases in the atmosphere.

Applications for sustainability on Earth

Rieker’s work did not start with the goal of mapping exoplanet’s atmospheres. The original objective was to understand the combustion inside a rocket or aircraft engine. He had set out to chart the emissions coming from those engines, which can help society find more efficient ways to burn fuel. 

“I think it is interesting that you can tie the applications of the instrument from a jet engine at the Denver International Airport to the atmosphere of a distant an exoplanet far from Earth,” Cole said.

The range of the technology’s function still allows the team to mimic the inside of a jet engine and map the gases being emitted, but while building the equipment, Cole recognized that the conditions inside the simulated engine were very similar to conditions on the surface of Venus – high-temperature and high-pressure.

“Venus is a really interesting planet because physically, Venus and Earth are very similar in terms of size and density,” Cole said. “There is an ongoing question in the planetary science community that says you can draw an interesting comparison between Venus and Earth. Does Venus give us another data point for how Earth-like planets evolve?”

Venus has an atmosphere that is almost 860 degrees Fahrenheit and is 95-times the pressure of Earth’s atmosphere. The planet is completely inhospitable largely due to a runaway greenhouse effect driven by the high amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. The potent greenhouse gas traps heat in Venus’s atmosphere, leading to extremely high surface temperatures.

While Earth’s atmosphere is nowhere near the levels of carbon dioxide found on Venus, studies of Venus’s atmosphere could advance climate change research.

“Our equipment can help scientists better understand Venus and the evolution of atmospheres that are increasingly burdened with carbon dioxide,” Cole said. “The experiment can help our understanding of the atmospheres of Earth-like planets with a sample size of two planets, instead of just one.”

From the inside of an engine to the surface of Venus and distant exoplanets, the fundamental goal of Rieker and Cole’s work is to understand how light interacts with gas molecules. However, no matter the scope, the applications of Rieker and Cole’s research all have the same theme – to promote life. One day soon, that might include life elsewhere, not just on Earth.
 

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Mechanical Engineering Professors Mark Rentschler and Greg Rieker are now Senior Members of the (NAI) – an honor that recognizes their thought-leadership and discovery.

The two professors were inducted on Nov. 1, during NAI’s tenth annual meeting. NAI Senior Members are active faculty, scientists and administrators who have produced technologies that have brought, or aspire to bring, real impact to the welfare of society. They are also recognized for educating and mentoring the next generation of inventors.

Rentschler’s patent success can be seen at his medical device startup . The company recently received a patent for medical balloon technology to improve anchoring consistency in the gastrointestinal tract. 

The PillarTM Technology are small nubs on the balloon that are made of silicone. The pillars create more friction, allowing doctors to better secure the device in the small intestine. Aspero Medical uses the micro-textured balloon in its AncoraTM Balloon Overtube for endoscopies.

Rieker’s company – – has found success as well, recently being named the . LongPath uses laser technology to help oil and gas companies monitor methane and detect leaks across large areas of infrastructure.

The Frequency Comb Laser technology the company uses was the basis of Nobel Prize-winning research at the University of ŷ���ڱ���Ƶ Boulder and the National Institute of Standards and Technology.

Rentschler and Rieker are among the 63 inventors in the 2021 class of Senior Members. University of ŷ���ڱ���Ƶ Boulder molecular, cellular and developmental biology professor Tin Tin Su is in this year’s class as well. 

Su is the lead inventor on three issued patents, two of which are licensed to her startup company . She now serves as the company's chief scientific officer. Su’s inventions have garnered $4.5 million in federal contracts from the National Cancer Institute, resulting in subcontracts to five ŷ���ڱ���Ƶ researchers at other institutions and a potential new treatment for an orphan disease.

Currently, Su is utilizing a $2 million  contract for SuviCa to develop an innovative screening platform–hardware and software–to identify novel radiation modulators for cancer. This system will be leveraged to generate intellectual property through partnership agreements to screen compound libraries. Each new compound identified has the potential to generate upwards of $4 million.

The NAI represents 37 research universities, government and non-profit research institutes. The 63 inventors are named on more than 625 issued U.S. patents. Rentschler, Rieker and Su are the first three inventors from ŷ���ڱ���Ƶ Boulder to be inducted as Senior Members. 

Inventors need to be nominated to receive the Senior Member standing with the NAI. Nominations are reviewed by the Senior Member Advisory Committee, a peer group comprised of NAI Fellows and Members.

The NAI includes more than 4,000 individual inventor members and fellows from more than 250 institutions around the world. Ten ŷ���ڱ���Ƶ Boulder inventors have been named NAI Fellows since 2015.   

Correction: The original article included Mollecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology Professor Tin Tin Su's name, but it did not include her photo and work. Both have been added to celebrate her accomplishments and value to the ŷ���ڱ���Ƶ Boulder community.

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University of ŷ���ڱ���Ƶ, CIRES, NOAA and NIST team harnesses Nobel Prize technology to detect distant gas leaks

A new field instrument developed by a collaborative team of researchers can quantify methane leaks as tiny as 1/4 of a human exhalation from nearly a mile away. CIRES, NOAA, ŷ���ڱ���Ƶ Boulder, and NIST scientists revamped and “ruggedized” Nobel Prize laser technology—turning a complex, room-sized collection of instruments into a sleek, 19-inch portable unit to tote into the field near oil and gas operations. The instrument collects precise, nonstop data, providing game-changing information critical for safe industry operations and controlling harmful greenhouse gas emissions.

The team, funded by an ARPA-E grant focusing on “high risk/high reward” science, along with a companion paper on the leak-finding routines in the journal Atmospheric Measurement Techniques.

Detecting methane and other gas leaks from oil and gas operations has traditionally been hampered by high costs and technological constraints, which have limited efforts to provide continuous monitoring. The new technology, which relies on a laser system called a dual frequency comb spectrometer, provides a much-needed solution: extremely efficient, accurate data collection at a fraction of the cost of previous technologies.

“This instrument is particularly special because it’s precise, autonomous, and continuous,” said Caroline Alden, CIRES researcher and a co-lead author of the study. “Other technologies like aircraft flybys or physically traveling to sampling sites pose a problem—if a leak occurs between sampling events, you missed it.”

Continuous monitoring could help industry operators catch not only frequent, small leaks, but large, infrequent ones, Alden said. Such "super emitters" are thought to comprise only 20 percent of leaks, but cause 80 percent of emissions.

The journey to this technology development started back in 2005, when ŷ���ڱ���Ƶ Boulder JILA researchers won the Nobel Prize in Physics for work on a device called a Frequency Comb Laser. The laser emits hundreds of thousands of wavelengths of light, compared with the single wavelength of many traditional lasers.  This laser enables the measurement of light with extreme accuracy, enabling precision atomic clocks and future mapping technologies, for example.

Other researchers realized that a frequency comb could also be used to measure concentrations of specific molecules in the air, as each would have their own light absorption “fingerprint.” NIST researchers Nate Newbury and Ian Coddington made this possible by creating a frequency comb spectrometer capable of untangling the thousands of different wavelengths from the device.

When it came to applying this technology to real-world methane leak detection, a team including ŷ���ڱ���Ƶ Boulder mechanical engineering assistant professor and project PI Greg Rieker, atmospheric scientist Alden, chemist Sean Coburn, and engineer Rob Wright stepped in. The team scaled down what was originally a room brimming with instrumentation to a 19-inch box that could be carried into the field. Alden and others on the atmospheric team figured out how to use wind patterns to investigate possible leak points, enabling their frequency-comb based observing system to pinpoint the source of a methane leak.

“It was a great collaborative effort, it all came together perfectly,” said Rieker. “We ended up creating an instrument that was mobile, portable, and robust—it works better than the original, at a 10th of the cost.”

The instrument sits on a mobile platform that can be placed out in field sites surrounded by oil and gas operations. It swivels 360 degrees, sending out carefully-tuned, invisible beams of light to reflect off small mirrors placed a mile or more away. If the beam, composed of over 100,000 wavelengths, passes through part of a gas plume blowing like a ribbon through the air, gases in the plume absorb some of the light in the beam before it returns to the detector. This lets researchers identify the unique absorption “fingerprints” of gases like methane and carbon dioxide. And with atmospheric models, researchers can track back to an actual leak location.

Researchers first tested the dual frequency comb spectrometer observing system at Boulder’s Table Mountain research facility, successfully detecting leaks emitted from large metal cylinders full of methane they dragged around the rolling hills of the field site. The team is now putting the instrument through a rigorous blind test: collaborators at the METEC test site, run by the Energy Institute at ŷ���ڱ���Ƶ State University, set up a treasure hunt of leaks in varying locations and sizes, even planting false leaks to trick the system.

“We know nothing about the leaks or where they are—so there will be no ‘cheating the system’,” said Rieker. “We’re still preparing those results for public release, but I can say that we surprised even ourselves with our ability to find the leaks.”

This first-of-its-kind technology presents something very unique in the oil and gas industry: the ability to monitor hundreds of sites from a single location. The more locations you can measure with a single instrument, the more cost effective it becomes, said Alden.

“As part of an effort to provide a service that can give oil and gas operators more efficient and cheaper leak detection, said Alden. “We will continue to grow this alongside the emerging technology it relies on.”

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