Ethane ocean on Titan

Details Ethane ocean on Titan Ethane ocean on Titan

Dec 1983

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1983sci...222.1229l&link_type=abstract

Science (ISSN 0036-8075), vol. 222, Dec. 16, 1983, p. 1229, 1230.

Physics

177

Ethane, Satellite Atmospheres, Satellite Surfaces, Titan, Methane, Photochemical Reactions, Photolysis, Thermodynamic Equilibrium, Voyager 1 Spacecraft

Scientific paper

Voyager I radio occultation data is employed to develop a qualitative model of an ethane ocean on Titan. It is suggested that the ocean contains 25 percent CH4 and that the ocean is in dynamic equilibrium with an N2 atmosphere. Previous models of a CH4 ocean are discounted due to photolysis rates of CH4 gas. Tidal damping of Titan's orbital eccentricity is taken as evidence for an ocean layer approximately 1 km deep, with the ocean floor being covered with a solid C2H2 layer 100 to 200 m thick. The photolytic process disrupting the CH4, if the estimates of the oceanic content of CH4 are correct, could continue for at least one billion years. Verification of the model is dependent on detecting CH4 clouds in the lower atmosphere, finding C2H6 saturation in the lower troposphere, or obtaining evidence of a global ocean.

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