Related papers: Detection of Propadiene on Titan
At wavelengths between 0.15 and 0.19 $\mu$m, the far-ultraviolet spectrum of Jupiter is dominated by the scattered solar spectrum, attenuated by molecular absorptions primarily by acetylene and ethane, and to a lesser extent ammonia and…
Observations of Neptune, made in 2018 using the new Narrow Field Adaptive Optics mode of the Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE) instrument at the Very Large Telescope (VLT) from 0.48 - 0.93 micron, are analysed here to determine the…
Thermochemical modeling and shock-tube experiments show that shocks applied to N$_2$/CH$_4$ gas mixtures can synthesize organic molecules. Sufficiently large, hypersonic meteoroids entering the atmosphere of Saturn's moon Titan should…
Titan, with its thick and hazy atmosphere, is a key world in our solar system for understanding light scattering processes. NASA's Cassini mission monitored Titan between 2004 and 2017, where the derived dataset includes a large number of…
Emission from the molecular ion H$_3^+$ is a powerful diagnostic of the upper atmosphere of Jupiter, Saturn, and Uranus, but it remains undetected at Neptune. In search of this emission, we present near-infrared spectral observations of…
We present the first radio/submillimeter detection of monodeuterated methane (CH$_3$D) in Titan's atmosphere, using archival data from of the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA). The $J_K=2_1-1_1$ and $J_K=2_0-1_0$…
The surface of Saturn's moon Titan is coated with small molecule organic solids termed cryominerals. Cryominerals play an analogous role to minerals on Earth in Titan's surface geology and geochemistry. To develop a predictive understanding…
One of the open questions in astrochemistry is how complex organic and prebiotic molecules are formed. Aims. Our aim is to start the process of compiling an inventory of oxygen-bearing complex organic molecules toward the solar-type Class 0…
Images from instruments on Cassini as well as from telescopes on the ground reveal the presence of sporadic small-scale cloud activity in the cold late-winter north polar of Saturn's large moon Titan. These clouds lie underneath the…
HH 212 is one of the well-studied protostellar systems, showing the first vertically resolved disk with a warm atmosphere around the central protostar. Here we report a detection of 9 organic molecules (including newly detected ketene,…
The formation and evolution of haze layers in planetary atmospheres play a critical role in shaping their chemical composition, radiative balance, and optical properties. In the outer solar system, the atmospheres of Titan and the giant…
Saturn's largest satellite, Titan, transited the Crab Nebula on 5 January 2003. We observed this astronomical event with the {\it Chandra} X-ray Observatory. An ``occultation shadow'' has clearly been detected and is found to be larger than…
In Titan's nitrogen-methane atmosphere, photochemistry leads to the production of complex organic particles, forming Titan's thick haze layers. Laboratory-produced aerosol analogs, or "tholins", are produced in a number of laboratories;…
Prior to the arrival of Cassini-Huygens, aerosol production in Titan's atmosphere was believed to begin in the stratosphere where chemical processes are predominantly initiated by FUV radiation. However, measurements taken by Cassini UVIS…
Photochemical hazes are suspected to obscure molecular features, such as water, from detection in the transmission spectra of exoplanets with atmospheric temperatures < 800 K. The opacities of laboratory produced organic compounds (tholins)…
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…
The largest moon of Neptune, Triton, possess a cold and hazy atmosphere. Since the discovery of near-surface haze layer during the Voyager fly in 1989, the haze formation mechanism has not been investigated in detail. Here, we provide the…
Cassini-Huygens data are used to re-examine the potential sources of the D/H enhancement over solar, measured in methane, in Titan's atmosphere. Assuming that the system is closed with respect to carbon, the use of constraints from the…
The aim of this study is to measure the vertical distribution of HCN on Titan's stratosphere using ground-based submm observations acquired quasi-simultaneously with the Herschel ones. This allows us to perform a consistency check between…
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…