Saturn's giant moon: How long has Titan's chemical factory been in business?
Wednesday, April 25, 2012 - 13:30
in Physics & Chemistry
Saturn's giant moon Titan hides within a thick, smoggy atmosphere that's well-known to scientists as one of the most complex chemical environments in the solar system. It's a productive "factory" cranking out hydrocarbons that rain down on Titan's icy surface, cloaking it in soot and, with a brutally cold surface temperature of around minus 270 degrees Fahrenheit, forming lakes of liquid methane and ethane. New research attempts to estimate how long this factory has been operating.