Anhydrous Ammonia Frost on Titan

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[5405] Planetary Sciences: Solid Surface Planets / Atmospheres, [5422] Planetary Sciences: Solid Surface Planets / Ices, [5709] Planetary Sciences: Fluid Planets / Composition, [6281] Planetary Sciences: Solar System Objects / Titan

Scientific paper

Ammonia has been suggested as a probable source for sustaining Titan's thick nitrogen-dominated atmosphere. Ammonia is believed to be important to maintaining nitrogen in Titan's atmosphere. Ammonia is seen in clouds in the atmospheres of Jupiter and Saturn, but has yet to be detected on any of the satellites. This may be because all forms of NH3 are unstable in the ambient conditions of the satellites surfaces or that its spectral features are altered by other components of the surface, and have not been identified. It has recently been demonstrated[1] that brightening occurs in Titan’s atmosphere that is transient on the time-scale of months. The spectral shape of the brightening is more consistent with that of the transient apparition of a pure ammonia frost than of an ammonia monohydrate or ammonia dihydrate frost. However, the phase behavior of the ammonia water system has peritectics at compositions of 1:1 and 1:2. These hydrate forms would be expected to dominate if the frost, or the reservoir from which the frost was derived had any water present. Physical mechanisms for producing measurable quanitities of anhydrous ammonia can include chemical dehydration or dehydration of the vapor phase - but it is challenging to store significant quantities of the anhydrous material because of the phase behavior in the solid state. [1] Nelson, R.M., et al. Saturn’s Titan: Surface Change, Ammonia, and Implications for Atmospheric and Tectonic Activity., Icarus, 199, pp. 429-441, 2009 This work was performed at JPL under contract to NASA

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