Laboratory Studies of the Nucleation of Butane on Tholins: Application to Titan's Atmosphere

Details Laboratory Studies of the Nucleation of Butane on Tholins: Application to Titan's Atmosphere Laboratory Studies of the Nucleation of Butane on Tholins: Application to Titan's Atmosphere

Dec 2000

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2000dps....32.6521c&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, DPS Meeting #32, #65.21; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 32, p.1643

Biology

1

Scientific paper

Titan, Saturn's largest satellite, has a thick nitrogen-methane atmosphere, with many minor components such as ethane, propane, acetylene, ethylene, and hydrogen cyanide. While some observations indicate that methane is supersaturated in Titan's lower stratosphere and upper troposphere, others suggest that methane clouds exist. If methane clouds do form, it is likely that they nucleate on Titan's organic haze particles, dubbed `tholins'. Tholins are thought to form high in Titan's atmosphere and may provide cloud nucleation sites as they fall toward the tropopause. Higher, hydrocarbons such as ethane, propane, and possibly butane may coat the tholins before they reach the tropopause. We have measured the supersaturation required (critical saturation ratio) to obtain butane nucleation on laboratory-produced tholin material. We find that a saturation ratio, S, equal to 1.4 is required for butane nucleation. If methane is similar to butane in this respect, our measurement would imply that it is relatively difficult to form methane clouds in Titan's atmosphere. This work was supported by the NASA Astrobiology Institute and NASA GSRP.

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