Mathematics – Logic
Scientific paper
Dec 2008
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2008agufm.p12a..06a&link_type=abstract
American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2008, abstract #P12A-06
Mathematics
Logic
0343 Planetary Atmospheres (5210, 5405, 5704), 5709 Composition (1060), 5739 Meteorology (3346), 5749 Origin And Evolution, 6281 Titan
Scientific paper
In its prime mission, the Cassini-Huygens Mission has provided unprecedented, synergistic remote sensing and in situ measurements from which a picture of the origin and evolution of Titan's atmosphere has begun to emerge. In particular, GCMS measurement of the height profile of methane from surface to the stratosphere, presence of methane-ethane lakes inferred from radar imaging and the VIMS spectra, abundance of heavy noble gases with the GCMS and INMS, determination of nitrogen isotope abundance in N2 by the GCMS and in HCN by CIRS, and the D/H ratio from methane by CIRS and from hydrogen by the GCMS, have been instrumental in constraining the models of Titan's atmospheric origin and evolution. The nitrogen on Titan appears to have formed early on by photolysis of ammonia, delivered from Saturn's subnebula during Titan's accretion. On the other hand, presently there are two leading hypotheses for the origin of methane - formation on Titan, and direct delivery to Titan - with their individual pros and cons. Methane on Titan displays characteristics similar to water on Earth, complete with a cycle of evaporation from surface reservoirs, cloud formation, followed by rain. It is also destroyed irreversibly by photochemistry, requiring replenishment from the interior from time to time. The fate of Titan's nitrogen is closely coupled to the photochemical-meteorological-hydrogeochemical cycle of methane.
Atreya Sushil K.
Lunine Jonathan I.
Niemann Hasso B.
Owen Tobias C.
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