English
Related papers

Related papers: Impacts into Titan's methane-clathrate crust as a …

200 papers

As the only icy satellite with a thick atmosphere and liquids on its surface, Titan represents a unique end-member to study the impact cratering process. Unlike craters on other Saturnian satellites, Titan's craters are preferentially…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2023-06-12 Shigeru Wakita , Brandon C. Johnson , Jason M. Soderblom , Jahnavi Shah , Catherine D. Neish

The strength of Titan's methane cycle, as measured by precipitation and evaporation, is key to interpreting fluvial erosion and other indicators of the surface-atmosphere exchange of liquids. But the mechanisms behind the occurrence of…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2015-06-05 Jonathan L. Mitchell

The origin of Titan's atmospheric methane is a key issue for understanding the origin of the Saturnian satellite system. It has been proposed that serpentinization reactions in Titan's interior could lead to the formation of the observed…

The small number of impact craters found on Titan suggests that its surface is relatively young. Previous work estimated its surface age to be between 200 and 1000 Myr. This estimate, however, is based on crater scaling laws for water and…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2026-01-14 Shigeru Wakita , Brandon C. Johnson , Jason M. Soderblom , Catherine D. Neish

Titan's northern high latitudes host many large hydrocarbon lakes. Like water lakes on Earth, Titan's lakes are constantly subject to evaporation. This process strongly affects the atmospheric methane abundance, the atmospheric temperature,…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2024-03-19 Audrey Chatain , Scot C. R. Rafkin , Alejandro Soto , Ricardo Hueso , Aymeric Spiga

Several clues indicate that Titan's atmosphere has been depleted in methane during some period of its history, possibly as recently as 0.5-1 billion years ago. It could also happen in the future. Under these conditions, the atmosphere…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2015-06-22 Benjamin Charnay , François Forget , Gabriel Tobie , Christophe Sotin , Robin Wordsworth

The details of the Solar system's formation are still heavily debated. Questions remain about the formation locations of the giant planets, and the degree to which volatile material was mixed throughout the proto-planetary system. One…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2013-02-20 Lucyna Kedziora-Chudczer , Jeremy Bailey , Jonathan Horner

From orbit, the visibility of Titan's surface is limited to a handful of narrow spectral windows in the near-infrared (near-IR), primarily from the absorption of methane gas. This has limited the ability to identify specific compounds on…

We study the transport of methane in the external water envelopes surrounding water-rich super-Earths and estimate its outgassing into the atmosphere. We investigate the influence of methane on the thermodynamics and mechanics of the water…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2014-08-28 Amit Levi , Dimitar Sasselov , Morris Podolak

We investigate the effects of varying Saturn's orbit on the atmospheric circulation and surface methane distribution of Titan. Using a new general circulation model of Titan's atmosphere, we simulate its climate under four characteristic…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2014-12-30 Juan M. Lora , Jonathan I. Lunine , Joellen L. Russell , Alexander G. Hayes

Titan is the only moon with a substantial atmosphere, the only other thick N$_{2}$ atmosphere besides Earth's, the site of extraordinarily complex atmospheric chemistry that far surpasses any other solar system atmosphere, and the only…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2018-01-10 Sarah M. Hörst

Saturn's largest satellite, Titan, has a thick atmosphere dominated by nitrogen and methane. The dense orange-brown smog hiding the satellite's surface is produced by photochemical reactions of methane, nitrogen and their dissociation…

Astrophysics · Physics 2009-11-13 Olivier Mousis , Bernard Schmitt

Impact crater counts on the Saturnian satellites are a key element for estimating their surface ages and placing constraints on their impactor population. The Cassini mission radar observations allowed crater counts to be made on the…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2022-05-31 N. L. Rossignoli , R. P. Di Sisto , M. G. Parisi

During the accretion of Titan, impact heating may have been sufficient to allow the global melting of water ice and the release of volatile compounds, mainly constituted of CO2, CH4 and NH3. The duration and efficiency of exchange between…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2018-06-06 Nadejda Marounina , Olivier Grasset , Gabriel Tobie , Sabrina Carpy

A candidate explanation for Early Mars rivers is atmospheric warming due to surface release of H$_2$ or CH$_4$ gas. However, it remains unknown how much gas could be released in a single event. We model the CH$_4$ release by one mechanism…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2019-12-09 Edwin S. Kite , Michael A. Mischna , Peter Gao , Yuk L. Yung , Martin Turbet

Recent observations have evidenced traces of methane CH4 heterogeneously distributed in the martian atmosphere. However, because the lifetime of CH4 in the atmosphere of Mars is estimated to be around 300-600 years on the basis of…

Astrophysics · Physics 2009-11-13 Caroline Thomas , Olivier Mousis , Sylvain Picaud , Vincent Ballenegger

Titan's atmospheric composition and dynamical state have previously been studied over numerous epochs by both ground- and space-based facilities. However, stratospheric measurements remain sparse during Titan's northern summer and fall. The…

We review the reservoirs of methane clathrates that may exist in the different bodies of the Solar System. Methane was formed in the interstellar medium prior to having been embedded in the protosolar nebula gas phase. This molecule was…

The Cassini-Huygens mission measured the chemical abundances of the major components of Titan's atmosphere, and analyses of the data revealed several as-yet unexplained anomalies in the methane and hydrogen profiles. We model the…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2021-07-23 Erin E. Flowers , Christopher F. Chyba , Paul J. Thomas

Ethane is expected to be the dominant photochemical product on Titan's surface and, in the absence of a process that sequesters it from exposed surface reservoirs, a major constituent of its lakes and seas. Absorption of Cassini's 2.2 cm…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2016-04-06 Olivier Mousis , Jonathan I. Lunine , Alexander G. Hayes , Jason D. Hofgartner
‹ Prev 1 2 3 10 Next ›