NAI
2010 Annual Science Report
NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory - Titan
Reporting | SEP 2009 – AUG 2010
Task 1.2 Interaction of Methane/ethane With Water Ice
Project Summary
The extent to which hydrocarbon liquids interact with the bedrock water ice sets the stage for reactions leading to the formation of prebiotic oxygen-containing organic compounds on the Titan surface.
Project Progress
Co-Investigator Christophe Sotin in collaboration with Postdoctoral Fellow Mathieu Choukroun and others pursued laboratory experiments aimed at investigating the interaction of hydrocarbons with water ice. Progresses involved the purchase of a new chamber to carry out laboratory experiments that simulate the interaction of liquid hydrocarbons with water ice (Figure 1).
Figure 1: Wetting of mono-crystalline ice. After performing several experiments on the wetting of porous ice at 90 K (Titan’s surface temperature), we have investigated the wetting properties on single-crystal ice. The image was taken during the experiment. It shows that the hydrocarbons wet the cracks which are present in the crystal.
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PROJECT INVESTIGATORS:
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PROJECT MEMBERS:
Mathieu Choukroun
Postdoc
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RELATED OBJECTIVES:
Objective 1.1
Formation and evolution of habitable planets.
Objective 2.2
Outer Solar System exploration
Objective 3.1
Sources of prebiotic materials and catalysts
Objective 3.2
Origins and evolution of functional biomolecules
Objective 3.3
Origins of energy transduction
