Other
Scientific paper
Apr 2010
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2010ttt..work...74l&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
Other
Scientific paper
We describe a scenario of Titan's formation matching the constraints imposed by its current atmospheric composition. Assuming that the abundances of all elements, including oxygen, are solar in the outer nebula, we propose that the building blocks of the satellite were agglomerated in the feeding zone of Saturn from a mixture of multiple guest clathrates, so-called stochiometric hydrates such as ammonia hydrate, and pure condensates. We also use a statistical thermodynamic approach to constrain the composition of multiple guest clathrates formed in the solar nebula. We then infer that krypton and xenon, that are expected to condense in the 20-30 K temperature range in the solar nebula, are trapped in clathrates at higher temperatures than 50 K. Once formed, these ices either were accreted by Saturn or remained embedded in its surrounding subnebula until they found their way into the regular satellites growing around Saturn. In order to explain the carbon monoxide and primordial argon deficiencies of Titan's atmosphere, we suggest that the satellite was formed from icy planetesimals initially produced in the solar nebula and that were partially devolatilized at a temperature not exceeding 50 K during their migration within Saturn's subnebula. The observed deficiencies of Titan's atmosphere in krypton and xenon could result from other processes that may have occurred after the completion of Titan. Thus, krypton and xenon may have been trapped efficiently in clathrates located on the satellite's surface or in its atmospheric haze.
Lunine Jonathan
Mousis Olivier
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