Synergism of Saturn, Enceladus and Titan and Formation of HCNO Exobiological Molecules

Details Synergism of Saturn, Enceladus and Titan and Formation of HCNO Exobiological Molecules Synergism of Saturn, Enceladus and Titan and Formation of HCNO Exobiological Molecules

Apr 2010

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2010ttt..work...76s&link_type=abstract

Through Time; A Workshop On Titan's Past, Present and Future, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, April 6th - 8th, 2010. Edited b

Mathematics

Logic

Scientific paper

Saturn as a system has two very exotic moons Titan and Enceladus. Titan with energy input from Saturn's magnetosphere, solar UV irradiation, and cosmic rays can make HCN based molecules as discussed in earlier paper by Raulin and Owen (2002). Space radiation effects at both moons, and as coupled by the Saturn magnetosphere, could cause an unexpected series of events leading to the evolution of biological models at Titan composed of HCNO with oxygen as the new ingredient. The "Old Faithful" model by Cooper et al. (2009) suggests that Enceladus, highly irradiated by Saturn magnetospheric electrons, has episodic ejections of water vapor driven by radiolytic oxidation gas products into Saturn's magnetosphere. At Titan Cassini discovered 1) that keV oxygen ions, evidently from Enceladus, are bombarding Titan's upper atmosphere (Hartle et al., 2006a,b) and 2) the discovery of heavy positive and negative ions within Titan's upper atmosphere (Coates et al., 2007). Initial models of heavy ion formation in Titan's upper atmosphere invoked polymerization of aromatics such as Benzenes and their radicals to make PAHs (Waite et al., 2007), while a more recent model by Sittler et al. (2009) has raised the possibility of carbon chains forming from the polymerization of acetylene and its radicals to eventually make fullerenes. Laboratory measurements indicate that fullerenes, which are hollow carbon shells, can trap the keV oxygen and with the clustering of fullerenes and possible mixture with PAHs, some with nitrogen molecules, can make the larger aerosols with oxygen within them. Then with further ionizing irradiation from cosmic rays deep in the atmosphere "tholin" molecules are produced with all the molecular components present from which organic molecules can form. Among the molecular components are amino acids, the fundamental building blocks of life as we know it. This process maybe a common chemical pathway, both at the system level and at the molecular level, to form prebiotic and perhaps even biotic molecules. Such processes can be occurring throughout our universe, such as molecular clouds in the ISM.

Affiliated with

Also associated with

No associations

Rating

Synergism of Saturn, Enceladus and Titan and Formation of HCNO Exobiological Molecules 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 Synergism of Saturn, Enceladus and Titan and Formation of HCNO Exobiological Molecules, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Synergism of Saturn, Enceladus and Titan and Formation of HCNO Exobiological Molecules will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

Comments { 0 }

Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-1191481