Researchers to Study the Surface of Titan

Vincent Chevrier, assistant research professor in the Arkansas Center for Space and Planetary Sciences, conducted preliminary studies in a planetary environmental simulation chamber to show that it could be done. NASA awarded Chevrier $516,047 over five years, and the university will match half of that for a total of about $750,000.

Titan is the only satellite in the solar system that has a substantial atmosphere. The atmosphere is about 95 percent nitrogen, with small amounts of methane, hydrogen and hydrocarbons. The temperature of Titan’s surface is 290 degrees below zero Fahrenheit, so no liquid water exists on the moon’s surface. However, the space mission Cassini Huygens showed that liquid methane lakes, clouds and snow-topped mountains suggest a complex “hydrologic” cycle on Titan that involves organic molecules. Chevrier’s research will help determine the short- and long-term stability of light organic volatile compounds such as methane and ethane on the surface and subsurface of Titan. Knowing this could also help explain how the moone evolved.

“Our results will put strong constraints on the stability and behavior of liquid volatiles, and thus on the formation of pools and lakes on Titan, and help identify their source,” Chevrier said. “This will improve understanding of the formation of complex organic molecules in the atmosphere.”

The researchers will use a dedicated simulation chamber to conduct experiments on the evaporation and sublimation rates of methane, ethane and mixtures of the two under conditions as close to those of Titan’s surface as possible.

Space Center scientists will be able to apply models that they have developed in the laboratory in the past several years to study sublimation and evaporation conditions found on Mars to Titan, and also to other planetary bodies.

The Arkansas Center for Space and Planetary Sciences is housed in the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences and the College of Engineering.

CONTACTS:
Vincent Chevrier, research professor
Arkansas Center for Space and Planetary Sciences
479-575-3170, vchevrie@uark.edu
Melissa Lutz Blouin, director of science and research communications
University Relations
479-575-5555, blouin@uark.edu

Media Contact

Melissa Lutz Blouin Newswise Science News

More Information:

http://www.uark.edu

All latest news from the category: Physics and Astronomy

This area deals with the fundamental laws and building blocks of nature and how they interact, the properties and the behavior of matter, and research into space and time and their structures.

innovations-report provides in-depth reports and articles on subjects such as astrophysics, laser technologies, nuclear, quantum, particle and solid-state physics, nanotechnologies, planetary research and findings (Mars, Venus) and developments related to the Hubble Telescope.

Back to home

Comments (0)

Write a comment

Newest articles

Lighting up the future

New multidisciplinary research from the University of St Andrews could lead to more efficient televisions, computer screens and lighting. Researchers at the Organic Semiconductor Centre in the School of Physics and…

Researchers crack sugarcane’s complex genetic code

Sweet success: Scientists created a highly accurate reference genome for one of the most important modern crops and found a rare example of how genes confer disease resistance in plants….

Evolution of the most powerful ocean current on Earth

The Antarctic Circumpolar Current plays an important part in global overturning circulation, the exchange of heat and CO2 between the ocean and atmosphere, and the stability of Antarctica’s ice sheets….

Partners & Sponsors