Physics
Scientific paper
Dec 2004
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2004agufm.p53a1448t&link_type=abstract
American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2004, abstract #P53A-1448
Physics
5407 Atmospheres: Evolution, 5410 Composition, 5430 Interiors (8147), 5455 Origin And Evolution, 6280 Saturnian Satellites
Scientific paper
Titan has a thick atmosphere composed primarily of nitrogen and methane. Methane is known to be irreversibly consumed photochemically on a timescale of a few tens of million years, which implies that any replenishment process must occur to maintain the methane abundance to its current value. Methane is believed to have been trapped within clathrate hydrate, a particular structure of ice, in Saturn's subnebula environnement, and then to have been incorporated within Titan's interior. Although the major part of clathrates is likely to have been devolatilized during the late stage of Titan's accretion, a significant portion could have "survived" within the deeper interior and could have been released later in Titan's history. Through coupled thermal and orbital calculations including a full description of the tidal dissipation, the heat transfer,the H2O-NH3 phase diagram and the methane clathrate stability, we study the possible evolution of clathrate distribution within Titan's interior, its effect of the thermal evolution, and the process of degassing from the interior. We show that only models with a few percent of ammonia and a significant fraction of methane clathrate within the interior can explain both the conservation of Titan's high eccentricity over the age of the solar system and the methane replenishment of the atmosphere. In our preferred scenario, two episodes of methane degassing are predicted: one during the first billion years and a second one after 3.5-4 Ga, explaining the present-day atmospheric methane abundance. Forthcoming data from the NASA/ESA Cassini-Huygens mission will allow us to test the present predictions.
Lunine Jonathan I.
Sotin Ch.
Tobie Gabriel
No associations
LandOfFree
The fate of methane clathrate hydrate within Titan does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.
If you have personal experience with The fate of methane clathrate hydrate within Titan, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and The fate of methane clathrate hydrate within Titan will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-1454374