The Fate of Simple Organics on Titan’s Surface: A Theoretical Perspective

Atmospheric photochemistry on Titan continuously transforms methane and nitrogen gases into various organic compounds.

This study explores the fate of these molecules when they land on Titan’s surface. Our analytical exploration reveals that most simple organics found in Titan’s atmosphere, including all nitriles, triple-bonded hydrocarbons, and benzene, land as solids.

Only a few compounds are in the liquid phase, while only ethylene remains gaseous. For the simple organics that land as solids, we further examine their interactions with Titan’s lake liquids. Utilizing principles of buoyancy, we found that flotation can be achieved via porosity-induced (25-60% porosity) or capillary force-induced buoyancy for HCN ices on ethane-rich lakes.

Otherwise, these ices would sink and become lakebed sediments. By evaluating the timescale of flotation, our findings suggest that porosity-induced flotation of millimeter-sized and larger sediments is the only plausible mechanism for floating solids to explain the transient “magic islands” phenomena on Titan’s lakes.

Xinting Yu, Yue Yu, Julia Garver, Xi Zhang, Patricia McGuiggan

Comments: 11 pages, 4 figures
Subjects: Earth and Planetary Astrophysics (astro-ph.EP); Atmospheric and Oceanic Physics (physics.ao-ph)
Cite as: arXiv:2401.02640 [astro-ph.EP] (or arXiv:2401.02640v1 [astro-ph.EP] for this version)
Journal reference: Geophysical Research Letters, 51, e2023GL105156
Related DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1029/2023GL106156
Focus to learn more
Submission history
From: Xinting Yu
[v1] Fri, 5 Jan 2024 05:11:56 UTC (8,656 KB)
https://arxiv.org/abs/2401.02640
Astrobiology, Astrochemistry,