The tricarbon molecule (C3) is likely produced in the upper atmosphere of Titan by the reaction of abundant acetylene with atomic carbon.
Among our Solar System’s more than 150 known moons, Saturn’s largest moon Titan is the only one with a substantial atmosphere.
And of all the places in the Solar System, Titan is the only place besides Earth known to have liquids in the form of rivers, lakes and seas on its surface.
Titan is larger than the planet Mercury and is the second largest moon in our Solar System. Jupiter’s moon Ganymede is just a little bit larger (by about 2%).
Titan’s atmosphere is made mostly of nitrogen, like Earth’s, but with a surface pressure 50% higher than Earth’s.
Titan has clouds, rain, rivers, lakes and seas of liquid hydrocarbons like methane and ethane.
“Home to a thick and chemically diverse atmosphere, Titan stands out among the giant planet’s icy satellites, as one of the most thoroughly studied objects in the Solar System,” said Dr. Rafael Silva, an astronomer with Observatório Astronómico de Lisboa and the University of Lisbon.
“Titan’s atmosphere works like a planetary-sized chemical reactor, producing many complex carbon-based molecules.”
“Of all the atmospheres we know in the Solar System, it is the most similar to the one we think existed on the early Earth.”
“Methane, which on Earth is a gas, provides information about geological processes and potentially about biological processes.”
“It is a molecule that does not survive long in the atmospheres of Earth or Titan because it is quickly and irreversibly destroyed by solar radiation.”
“For this reason, on Titan, methane must be being replenished by geological processes, such as the release of underground gas.”
In their study, Dr. Silva and his colleagues analyzed high resolution visible spectra of Titan obtained with the UVES high-resolution visible and ultraviolet spectrograph on ESO’s Very Large Telescope.
They were able to…
Read the full article here