ABOUT THE POSSIBLE ROLE OF HYDROCARBON LAKES IN THE ORIGIN OF TITAN'S NOBLE GAS ATMOSPHERIC DEPLETION
- Ecole Nationale Superieure de Chimie de Rennes, CNRS, UMR 6226, Avenue du General Leclerc, CS 50837, 35708 Rennes Cedex 7 (France)
- Universite de Franche-Comte, Institut UTINAM, CNRS/INSU, UMR 6213, 25030 Besancon Cedex (France)
- Dipartimento di Fisica, Universita degli Studi di Roma 'Tor Vergata', Rome (Italy)
- Laboratoire de Meteorologie Dynamique, Jussieu, P.O. Box 99, 75252 PARIS cedex 05 (France)
- Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ (United States)
- Departamento de Engenharia Quimica, Universidade de Coimbra, Coimbra 3030-290 (Portugal)
An unexpected feature of Titan's atmosphere is the strong depletion in primordial noble gases revealed by the Gas Chromatograph Mass Spectrometer aboard the Huygens probe during its descent on 2005 January 14. Although several plausible explanations have already been formulated, no definitive response to this issue has yet been found. Here, we investigate the possible sequestration of these noble gases in the liquid contained in lakes and wet terrains on Titan and the consequences for their atmospheric abundances. Considering the atmosphere and the liquid existing on the soil as a whole system, we compute the abundance of each noble gas relative to nitrogen. To do so, we make the assumption of thermodynamic equilibrium between the liquid and the atmosphere, the abundances of the different constituents being determined via regular solution theory. We find that xenon's atmospheric depletion can be explained by its dissolution at ambient temperature in the liquid presumably present on Titan's soil. In the cases of argon and krypton, we find that the fractions incorporated in the liquid are negligible, implying that an alternative mechanism must be invoked to explain their atmospheric depletion.
- OSTI ID:
- 21452787
- Journal Information:
- Astrophysical Journal Letters, Vol. 721, Issue 2; Other Information: DOI: 10.1088/2041-8205/721/2/L117; ISSN 2041-8205
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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