Related papers: DNA Nucleobase Synthesis at Titan Atmosphere Analo…
Triton is the largest moon of the Neptune system and possesses a thin nitrogen atmosphere with trace amounts of carbon monoxide and methane, making it of similar composition to that of the dwarf planet Pluto. Like Pluto and Saturn's moon…
Photochemistry induced by stellar UV flux should produce haze particles in exoplanet atmospheres. Recent observations indicate that haze and/or cloud layers exist in the atmospheres of exoplanets. However, photochemical processes in…
A striking feature of the atmosphere of Titan is that no heavy noble gases other than argon were detected by the Gas Chromatograph Mass Spectrometer (GCMS) aboard the Huygens probe during its descent to Titan's surface in January 2005. Here…
Neptune remains a mysterious world that deserves further exploration and is a high-priority objective for a future planetary mission in order to better understand the formation and evolution of ice giant planets. We have developed a coupled…
Titan has a diverse range of materials in its atmosphere and on its surface: the simple organics that reside in various phases (gas, liquid, ice) and the solid complex refractory organics that form Titan's haze layers. These materials all…
Titan, Saturn's largest moon, supports a dense atmosphere, numerous bodies of liquid on its surface, and as a richly organic world is a primary focus for understanding the processes that support the development of life. In-situ exploration…
As an exoplanet transits its host star, some of the light from the star is absorbed by the atoms and molecules in the planet's atmosphere, causing the planet to seem bigger; plotting the planet's observed size as a function of the…
Observations with Cassini's Electron Spectrometer discovered negative ions in Titan's ionosphere, at altitudes between 1400 and 950 km. Within the broad mass distribution extending up to several thousand amu, two distinct peaks were…
Titan's atmosphere possesses thick haze layers, but their formation mechanisms remain poorly understood, including the influence of oxygen-containing gas components on organic matter synthesis. As the most abundant oxygen-containing gas,…
Titan, with its thick, nitrogen-dominated atmosphere, has been seen from satellite and terrestrial observations to harbour methane clouds. To investigate whether atmospheric features such as clouds could also be visible from the surface of…
UV observations with Cassini ISS Narrow Angle Camera of Titan's detached haze is an excellent tool to probe its aerosols content without being affected by the gas or the multiple scattering. Unfortunately, its low extent in altitude…
Titan, Saturn's largest moon, is the only extraterrestrial body known to support stable liquid on its surface, in the form of seas and lakes that dot the polar regions. Many indications suggest that the liquid should be composed of a…
The aim of this short contribution is to report some preliminary results on a theoretical model of the internal structure of Titan, the satellite of Saturn. All the calculations were performed within the SK theory of dense matter. The…
We apply previously introduced measures of chemical disequilibrium to Cassini mass spectroscopy data on the atmosphere of Titan. In the analysis presented here, we use an improved description, avoiding the meanfield approximation in…
The recent derivation of a lower limit for the $^{14}$N/$^{15}$N ratio in Saturn's ammonia, which is found to be consistent with the Jovian value, prompted us to revise models of Saturn's formation using as constraints the supersolar…
Vinyl cyanide (C$_2$H$_3$CN) is theorized to form in Titan's atmosphere via high-altitude photochemistry and is of interest regarding the astrobiology of cold planetary surfaces due to its predicted ability to form cell membrane-like…
The surface of Titan, Saturn's largest moon, is rich in organics and is often suggested to model early Earth environments. Titan's surface is cold, at a temperature of approximately 90 K, which prohibits most thermally activated chemical…
In this article I summarize the current state of knowledge about the composition of Titan's atmosphere, and our current understanding of the suggested chemistry that leads to that observed composition. I begin with our present knowledge of…
To understand the origin of the dunes on Titan, it is important to investigate the material properties of Titan's organic sand particles on Titan. The organic sand may behave distinctively compared to the quartz/basaltic sand on terrestrial…
Water-ice-poor, 5-$\mu$m-bright material on Saturn's moon Titan has previously been geomorphologically identified as evaporitic. Here we present a global distribution of the occurrences of the 5-$\mu$m-bright spectral unit, identified with…