Mathematics – Logic
Scientific paper
Oct 2010
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2010aps..tsffm2005m&link_type=abstract
American Physical Society, Joint Fall 2010 Meeting of the Texas Sections of the APS, AAPT, Zone 13 of SPS and the National Socie
Mathematics
Logic
Scientific paper
Saturn's moon Titan is the only moon with a significant atmosphere, with a surface pressure of 1.5 times the surface pressure of Earth's atmosphere. The main constituents of Titan's atmosphere are molecular nitrogen (98%) and methane (1.4%). Diffusion, escape and chemical processes fractionate the isotopic ratios ^14N/^15N in N2, ^12C/^13C in CH4, and D/H in CH4. Diffusion and escape result in a preferential loss of the lighter isotopes. Photochemistry may result in loss of the lighter isotopes in CH4, but has been shown to have the opposite effect for N2. A model constructed (Mandt et al. 2009) to track the isotopic ratios as a function of geologic time found that the ^14N/^15N in N2 could not have evolved from the terrestrial ratio to its current value as a result of atmospheric escape, and that the ^12C/^13C measured in CH4 limited the length of time for methane to have consistently resided in the atmosphere to less than 200 million years. Recent re-analysis of the Huygens GCMS data from Titan's surface (Niemann et al. 2010) has revised the ^14N/^15N in N2 and ^12C/^13C in CH4, resulting in significant changes to model results for the evolution of methane. We will present these updated results on the evolution of Titan's atmosphere and discuss the implications for the history of Titan. Mandt, K. E., et al., 2009, Planetary and Space Science, 57, 1917-1930. H.B.Niemann, et al., 2010. J. Geophys. Res., in press
Bell Jared
Magee Brian
Mandt Kathleen
Waite Hunter
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