Titan Lecture 14 Post Midterm No copyright infringement is intended by the creation or use of these notes Discovered in 1655 by Chritstiaan Huygens Largest moon of Saturn Physical Features o Pale yellow color hydrocarbons o About half the diameter of the Earth its 5000 13000 o 40 Water Ice and 60 Rock o Thick murky atmosphere thicker than Earth o Cold 180C o Liquid on surface most likely not water Titan s Atmosphere o 98 4 Nitrogen the rest are methane hydrogen and hydrocarbon o Since methane is unstable over long periods of time it must be produced by some source Possible sources to replenish methane are Microbial production Past hydrothermal vents methane hydrate reservoirs cryptovolcanisms o Periodically rains liquid methane and other organic compounds to surface o Low temp and high pressure methane exists in every state S L G o Formation of Titan s Haze Sunlight and Saturn s magnetic field breakup methane and nitrogen molecules in the atmosphere which react to form chains of hydrocarbons PAH then hydrocarbon aerosols tholins that settle on Titan s surface Titan s Surface o Covered by hydrocarbon coated sand dunes o Rivers and lakes made of liquid hydrocarbons methane and ethane o Beaches consist of benzene and acetylene o Cryptovolcanism expels ammonia water and probably methane Titan s Subsurface tidal deformation o Could have an underground ocean of liquid and ammonia as suggested by o The deformity of Titan is caused by Saturn s gravitational pull when close it causes Titan to be football shaped Suggests subsurface ocean Life on Titan o Could be life in the subsurface ocean life forms similar to Earth o Could be life in hydrocarbon lakes rivers Would support life very different from that of Earth Hydrocarbons are non polar they would not dissolve essential biomolecules we know DNA RNA amino acids Hydrocarbons can intermix with all hydrocarbons Cell membranes would be inside out hydrophobic outside layer surrounding hydrophilic inside Hypothetical model alternative to cell membranes in non polar liquid Built based on ingredients available on Titan Not bilayer stable high flexibility self assembly strong barrier to decomposition Azotosomes o Forming simple biological molecules from Titan s atmosphere Miller Urey like experiment based on Titan s atmosphere formed simple amino acids however they are not dissolvable in hydrocarbons