Atmosphere of Titan Jorge Hernández Arce Física del Sistema Solar Master en Astrofísica UCMUAM Content A little history Characteristics of the moons atmosphere General ID: 204069
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Slide1
The Atmosphere of Titan
Jorge Hernández ArceFísica del Sistema SolarMaster en Astrofísica UCM-UAMSlide2
Content
A little historyCharacteristics of the
moon’s
atmosphere
General
properties
.
Composition
.
Similarities
with
Earth’s
atmosphere
and
their
meaning
.
Cassini
and
Huygens
ReferencesSlide3
A little history
First suspicions of an atmosphere
Comas i
Solá
(1903).
Confirmed
by
Kuiper
in 1944.
First
detailed
images
of
the
moon
obtained
by
Voyager
1 in 1981
discovering
that
the
atmosphere
was
, in
fact
,
denser
than
the
Earth’s
.
Already
in
the
21st
Century
the
probe
Huygens
,
part
of
the
spacecraft
Cassini
,
succesfuly
landed
in
the
moon’s
surface
.Slide4
Characteristics of the moon’s
atmosphereAs aforementioned,
it’s
actually
denser
than the Earth. The surface pressure is about 1.47 times greater. Given this density, and the low gravitational force of the satellite (1.35 m/s2), the atmosphere is much more extent than ours, its effects being appreciable even at 1000 km of altitude. Slide5
Characteristics of the moon’s
atmosphereThe main
gases
that
compose
Titan’s
atmosphere are: Nitrogen (98.4 %)Methane (1.4%)Hydrogen (0.1-0.2%)Trace amounts of ethane, diacetylene, methylacetylene and other hydrocarbons.Also traces of other gases such as cyanoacetylene, hydrogen cyanide, carbon dioxide, etc. Slide6
Characteristics of the moon’s
atmosphere
Here
is
the
atmospheric composition at different altitudes:Slide7
Similarities to Earth’s
atmosphereThe main
similarity
is
the
atmosphere’s density and composition. It’s roughly as dense as Earth (just a little denser) and shares the same major component (nitrogen). There is evidence of rain on the surface of the planet, although it doesn’t rain water, but methane.There is a high
amount
of
organic
compounds
in
the
atmosphere
, as
aforementioned
.
In
high
latitudes
there
are
lakes
of
liquid
methane
,
whereas
near
the
equator
Titan
is
more
arid
,
although
there
are
signs
of
the
presence
of
liquids
. Slide8
Similarities to Earth’s
atmosphereAll these
similarities
,
specially
the
organic compounds, lead to believe that Titan is the most probable candidate to accomodate life outside of Earth, although it is still highly improbable due to other conditions ( the surface temperature is 92 K in average).The presence of liquid
methane
ensures
the
lack
of
oxygen
given
the
fact
that
it
would
cause
the
methane
to
burn
.Slide9
Cassini-Huygens
It is a
joint
project
of NASA, ESA and ASI (
Italian
Space Agency). Launched on 15th of October 1997 and arrived to Saturn the 1st of July, 2004.The part specifically designed to study Titan is the Huygens probe, which separated from the main spacecraft the 25th of December 2004 and landed in the satellite’s
surface
on
the
14th of
January
of
the
next
year
, 2005.Slide10
Cassini-HuygensThe Huygens probe is equiped with the following instruments:
Aerosol collector an Pyrolyser (ACP)Descent Imager/Spectral Radiometer (DISR)Doppler Wind Experiment (DWE)Gas Chromatograph and Mass Spectrometer (GCMS)Huygens Atmosphere Structure Instrument (HASI)
Surface Science Package (SSP)Slide11
Cassini-Huygens
The probe’s most important findins
are:
The
aforementioned
methane
cycle. There are lakes of liquid methane, fed by rain of this same molecule together with organic ones. Winds in the direction of rotation of the moon, between 60 and 100 km/h.Solid surface of Titan is orange, and spongy, can be compared with yogurt.Possibility of a
past
volcanic
activity
with
ice
an
ammonia
instead
of lava.
The
surface
temperature
is around 90K.Slide12
ReferencesBiemann
, H. B., Atreya, S. K. et al. 2010 Journal of Geophysical
Research
. V. 115.
Turtle
, E. P., Perry, J. E., et al
.
Science
V. 331 2011Yung, Y. L., Allen, M. et al. The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series, 55:465-506, 1984.Rodriguez, S.; Le Mouélic, S. et al. Nature 459 2009.http://www.esa.int/esaMI/Cassini-Huygens/index.html