Titan

Vertical Distribution Of Cyclopropenylidene And Propadiene In The Atmosphere Of Titan

By Keith Cowing
Status Report
astro-ph.EP
May 16, 2022
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Vertical Distribution Of Cyclopropenylidene And Propadiene In The Atmosphere Of Titan
This artist’s concept of a lake at the north pole of Saturn’s moon Titan illustrates raised rims and rampartlike features such as those seen by NASA’s Cassini spacecraft around the moon’s Winnipeg Lacus. Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Titan’s atmosphere is a natural laboratory for exploring the photochemical synthesis of organic molecules.

Significant recent advances in the study of the atmosphere of Titan include: (a) detection of C3 molecules: C3H6, CH2CCH2, c-C3H2, and (b) retrieval of C6H6, which is formed primarily via C3 chemistry, from Cassini-UVIS data. The detection of c-C3H2 is of particular significance since ring molecules are of great astrobiological importance. Using the Caltech/JPL KINETICS code, along with the best available photochemical rate coefficients and parameterized vertical transport, we are able to account for the recent observations. It is significant that ion chemistry, reminiscent of that in the interstellar medium, plays a major role in the production of c-C3H2 above 1000 km.

Karen Willacy, SiHe Chen, Danica J. Adams, Yuk L. Yung

Comments: 18 pages (+ 27 page appendix), 16 figures

Subjects: Earth and Planetary Astrophysics (astro-ph.EP); Chemical Physics (physics.chem-ph)

Cite as: arXiv:2204.13064 [astro-ph.EP] (or arXiv:2204.13064v1 [astro-ph.EP] for this version)

https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2204.13064

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Submission history

From: Karen Willacy 

[v1] Wed, 27 Apr 2022 17:03:47 UTC (1,150 KB)

https://arxiv.org/abs/2204.13064

Astrobiology

Keith Cowing

Explorers Club Fellow, ex-NASA Space Station Payload manager/space biologist, Away Teams, Journalist, Lapsed climber, Synaesthete, Na’Vi-Jedi-Freman-Buddhist-mix, ASL, Devon Island and Everest Base Camp veteran, (he/him) 🖖🏻

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