https://edition.cnn.com/2020/10/28/world/titan-atmosphere-molecule-chemistry-scn-trnd/index.html

(CNN)Saturn’s largest moon, Titan, is the only moon in our solar system that has a thick atmosphere. It’s four times denser than Earth’s. And now, scientists have discovered a molecule in it that has never been found in any other atmosphere.

The particle is called cyclopropenylidene, or C3H2, and it’s made of carbon and hydrogen. This simple carbon-based molecule could be a precursor that contributes to chemical reactions that may create complex compounds. And those compounds could be the basis for potential life on Titan.

Good name.

That stuff on Titan, what does it mean?
It’s cyclopropenylidene!
We’ll have to ask our Chemical Queen,
It’s cyclopropenylidene!

Bubblecar said:

Good name.

That stuff on Titan, what does it mean?
It’s cyclopropenylidene!
We’ll have to ask our Chemical Queen,
It’s cyclopropenylidene!

It’s a cyclic hydrocarbon with two radical groups and a double bond so perviously it had only been discovered in spaaaaaace. It’s highly reactive so it is weird to find it in a dense atmosphere such as that of Titan.

dv said:

Bubblecar said:

Good name.

That stuff on Titan, what does it mean?
It’s cyclopropenylidene!
We’ll have to ask our Chemical Queen,
It’s cyclopropenylidene!

It’s a cyclic hydrocarbon with two radical groups and a double bond so perviously it had only been discovered in spaaaaaace. It’s highly reactive so it is weird to find it in a dense atmosphere such as that of Titan.

Highly unstable. Therefore created only be interaction of high energy radiation (UV, X-ray or gamma) with more normal organic molecules.

In much the same way that ozone and atomic oxygen is created in then Earth’s atmosphere from the interaction of UV with O2. Cyclopropenylidene is much less stable than ozone, but I’m not sure how the stability compares with atomic oxygen

> Cyclopropenylidene has now been detected only in the Taurus Molecular Cloud and in the atmosphere of Titan. The researchers were likely able to spot it because they were looking through the upper layers of Titan’s atmosphere, where the molecule has fewer gases it can interact with.

Which makes me wonder. What exotic molecules have been detected in the upper fringes of Earth’s atmosphere (thermosphere and ionosphere)? Molecules that couldn’t exist lower down.

Its an interesting moon Titan

Cymek said:

Its an interesting moon Titan

Yes quite

dv said:

Cymek said:

Its an interesting moon Titan

Yes quite

Moons themselves are an entire new place for the possibility of life
The planets they orbit can be outside of the Goldilocks zone but tidal heating heats the moon enough to allow the conditions for life as we know it