NASA: National Aeronautics and Space Administration

  1. Content with the tag: “hydrocarbons

  2. New Results from Titan


    Two recent studies based on data from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft scrutinize the complex chemical activity on the surface of Saturn’s moon Titan. One key finding comes from a new paper in Icarus that predicts a strong flux of hydrogen in the atmosphere, but a lack of it at the surface. The other paper, in the Journal of Geophysical Research maps deposits of many hydrocarbons on Titan’s surface and shows a lack of acetylene, contrary to expectations. They also found little evidence for exposed water ice on the surface.

    The depletions of hydrogen and acetylene present...

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  3. Studying Titan’s Lakes on Earth


    Titan Rain. Credit: NASA/JPL
    Saturn’s moon Titan is the only other object in the solar system known to have liquid on its surface. However, with temperatures as low as -179°C, these lakes are definitely not filled with water.

    Titan’s hydrocarbon lakes are poorly understood, but a NASA-supported project hopes to gain a better understanding of their properties by replicating the surface of Titan in a lab. The research could also yield clues about the chemistry that led to the origin of life on Earth.

    Source: [astrobio.net]

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  4. Hydrocarbons on Saturn's Moon Hyperion


    NASA’s Cassini spacecraft has revealed for the first time surface details of Saturn’s moon Hyperion, including cup-like craters filled with hydrocarbons that may indicate more widespread presence in our solar system of basic chemicals necessary for life.

    Source: [Link]

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  5. Finding Life in Mars Analog Sites on Earth


    Andrew Steel of the NAI Carnegie Team and other scientists have recently tested life-detection instruments designed for Mars at the Arctic Mars Analog site in a Norwegian volcano. In a press release, Hans Amundsen of the University of Oslo said “The instruments detected both living and fossilized organisms, which is the kind of evidence we’d be searching for on the Red Planet.” One instrument, designed by scientists at the Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL), detected “minute quantities of aromatic hydrocarbons from microorganisms and lichens present in the rocks and ice,” said JPL researcher Arthur Lonne Lane. One goal...

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