Low-temperature synthesis of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in Titan's surface ices and on airless bodies.

ABSTRACT: Titan's equatorial dunes represent the most monumental surface structures in our Solar System, but the chemical composition of their dark organics remains a fundamental, unsolved enigma, with solid acetylene detected near the dunes implicated as a key feedstock. Here, we reveal in laboratory simulation experiments that aromatics such as benzene, naphthalene, and phenanthrene-prospective building blocks of the organic dune material-can be efficiently synthesized via galactic cosmic ray exposure of low-temperature acetylene ices on Titan's surface, hence challenging conventional wisdom that aromatic hydrocarbons are formed solely in Titan's atmosphere. These processes are also of critical importance in unraveling the origin and chemical composition of the dark surfaces of airless bodies in t

SUBMITTER: Abplanalp MJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6795510 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature