Planetary Science Seminar

Titan, the largest moon of Saturn, is the only place in the solar system aside from Earth with standing liquid on its surface. It's much colder on Titan, however, so this liquid is not water but hydrocarbons, mostly methane and ethane. Despite the cold, Titan has revealed itself to be a very active world. From photochemistry in the atmosphere to erosion features on the surface, this moon has tantalized us at every turn, but we are only beginning to understand Titan as a system. Morgan Cable will present some recent laboratory work about unusual co-crystalline structures that may exist on Titan, as well as evidence that solid-phase chemistry can occur rapidly at Titan surface conditions even at low temperature. These discoveries are changing how we view Titan as a prebiotic chemical laboratory on a planetary scale.