Titan: Atmosphere, Surface and Interior
Titan: Atmosphere, Surface and Interior
Session ID#: 123421
Session Description:
Titan is the only moon in the Solar System with a dense atmosphere and active hydrologic system. It is also an Ocean World, with a deep interior water ocean that may provide a harbor for life. Photochemistry in the stratosphere consumes methane and generates a wealth of complex organic molecules, similar to the atmospheric chemistry of prebiotic Earth. Molecules grow in size through a variety of processes, ultimately forming haze particles that settle on the surface and are reworked into large equatorial dune fields. In the lower atmosphere methane and ethane form lakes, seas, clouds and rain in a weather cycle analogous to the Earth’s water-based meteorology. The surface exhibits infrequent craters, but offers other mysterious landforms interpreted as mountains, putative cryovolcanoes, tectonic features, and fluvial/lacustrine morphologies. In this session we welcome all recent research relevant to Titan, including new observations, spacecraft data analysis, modeling and laboratory experiment work.
Index Terms:
5210 Planetary atmospheres, clouds, and hazes [PLANETARY SCIENCES: ASTROBIOLOGY]
5455 Origin and evolution [PLANETARY SCIENCES: SOLID SURFACE PLANETS]
6280 Saturnian satellites [PLANETARY SCIENCES: SOLAR SYSTEM OBJECTS]
6281 Titan [PLANETARY SCIENCES: SOLAR SYSTEM OBJECTS]
Primary Convener: Conor A Nixon, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, United States
Conveners: Kathleen Mandt, The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Space Exploration Sector, Laurel, MD, United States, Alexander Hayes, Cornell University, Department of Astronomy, Ithaca, NY, United States and Christophe Sotin, Jet Propulsion Laboratory-California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, United States
Primary Liaison: Conor A Nixon, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, United States
See more of: Planetary Sciences