JPL Research 2017

This summer I once again worked in the Spectroscopy lab at JPL analyzing the spectrum of ammonia. Unlike last year however we actually got publishable results out of the effort. I used SPFit, a spectrum fitting software, to fit 1281 unpublished transitions with 2141 published transitions resulting in a linelist of 3482 transitions for the 3n2and n4+nbands of ammonia. Previously these bands had not been fit to experimental accuracy due to the complexity of ammonia’s molecular behavior, however this summer we were able to achieve what had previously never been done. Ammonia is one of the most abundant molecules in the universe so a better understanding its spectra will help astronomers understand the composition of the objects they are studying.