Titan Tholin Production Through Ion-Neutral Chemistry: Data and Model

Details Titan Tholin Production Through Ion-Neutral Chemistry: Data and Model Titan Tholin Production Through Ion-Neutral Chemistry: Data and Model

Dec 2009

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2009agufm.p51g1189w&link_type=abstract

American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2009, abstract #P51G-1189

Biology

[5210] Planetary Sciences: Astrobiology / Planetary Atmospheres, Clouds, And Hazes, [5405] Planetary Sciences: Solid Surface Planets / Atmospheres, [5435] Planetary Sciences: Solid Surface Planets / Ionospheres, [6281] Planetary Sciences: Solar System Objects / Titan

Scientific paper

Ion-neutral chemistry in Titan’s upper atmosphere produces a plethora of positive ions with masses up to about 350 amu and negative ions with much larger masses. The Cassini Plasma Spectrometer Ion Beam Spectrometer (CAPS-IBS), the Ion and Neutral Mass Spectrometer (INMS), and the CAPS Electron Spectrometer (CAPS-ELS) measure positive ions up to ~350 amu, positive ions and neutrals up to 100 amu, and negative ions to greater than 10,000 amu respectively. High-mass (greater than 100 Da.) spectral peaks lie in the region expected for polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and heterocyclic compounds. Coupled CAPS-IBS and INMS measurements provide ion densities through an iterative fitting process that are consistent with those measured by the Langmuir probe on Cassini. General properties of the high-mass positive ions are presented including scale height and day-night distribution. An ion-neutral model is presented which replicates the structure, primary peaks, and densities of the high mass ions observed. This model utilizes reactions studied within the context of Titan’s ionosphere, cold interstellar environments, and sooting flames as well as calculated reaction rates based on theoretical pathways. The primary ion-neutral reaction pathways are found to be acetylene addition, hydrogen cyanide insertion, and protonation. These processes are shown to reproduce the CAPS-IBS spectral peaks with good accuracy. We assess the possibility of heterocyclic compound production through ion-neutral chemistry in which nitrogen substituted aromatics, produced through reactions with HCN and HC3N, participate in associative reactions. Heterocyclic compounds, such as purine and pyrimidine, form the basic structural units of nucleotides.

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