scientist at NASAhave discovereda unusual new feature on Titan that does n’t conform to in with our current understanding of this Sun Myung Moon of Saturn . It does , though , point to this world being even more Earth - like than we recollect .
What the scientists discovered , using the composite infrared spectrometer ( CIRS ) on the Cassini spacecraft , was a cloud made of a compound of carbon copy and nitrogen called dicyanoacetylene ( C4N2 ) . This compound is responsible for for giving the lunar month its brownish - orange atmospherical hue .
The swarm was found in Titan ’s stratosphere ( a similar lineament was found by Voyager 1 in 1980 ) , the upper level of the air . But the confusing matter is that there is not enough C4N2 in evaporation form to excuse how this swarm formed . As NASA puts it , Titan ’s stratosphere is as “ dry as a desert ” , but this cloud has still somehow been able to form from this stock-still chemical substance .
" The appearance of this deoxyephedrine swarm exit against everything we know about the fashion cloud shape on Titan , " said Carrie Anderson , a CIRS atomic number 27 - investigator at NASA ’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt , Maryland , in astatement . Anderson is the lead author of a report on this uncovering put out in Geophysical Research Letters .
Clouds on Titan generally form like they do on Earth . On our worldly concern , H2O evaporates and condenses in a cycle , but on Titan the process takes billet using methane alternatively . At a high enough ALT , the evaporated methane release into ice , spring a swarm .
But for this cloud to have formed , NASA said there would have to be 100 times more vaporisation than has been detected . To explain it , the researchers indicate it may have formed through a unlike process called solid - province alchemy . How that works , well , we ’ll let NASA excuse .
How scientists think solid state chemistry may work on Titan . NASA / JPL - Caltech / GSFC
“ The first step in the proposed process is the geological formation of ice particles made from the related to chemical cyanoacetylene ( HC3N ) , ” NASA said . “ As these tiny bits of ice move downward through Titan ’s stratosphere , they get coated by hydrogen cyanide ( HCN ) .
“ At this stage , the ice particle has a core and a shell comprised of two different chemical substance . now and then , a photon of ultraviolet light tunnels into the frozen shell and activate a series of chemical reactions in the ice . These reactions could set about either in the essence or within the plate . Both tract can return dicyanoacteylene ice and H as products . ”
A similar appendage can occur on Earth , when Cl - bearing chemicals stick to crystal of piss crank . The stratosphere of Titan and Earth are immensely unlike in composition , but this research suggests some of the underlying cathartic may be the same .
" It ’s very exciting to conceive that we may have witness examples of alike whole - state chemical substance processes on both Titan and Earth , " say Anderson .
