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Astronomers Probe Mysterious Gas In Titan's Atmosphere
sciencehabit writes "A fluorescent glow high in the atmosphere of Titan, Saturn's largest moon, signifies the presence of a gas that astronomers have yet to identify. The glow appears only on the daytime side of the moon at altitudes between 600 and 1250 kilometers, with the largest intensity occurring at an altitude of about 950 km. Detailed analyses reveal that the glow doesn't stem from a problem with the Saturn-orbiting Cassini craft, and it isn't associated with methane or any of the other hydrocarbons already identified as constituents of Titan's atmosphere."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polycyclic_aromatic_hydrocarbon ...PAHs, subjected to interstellar medium (ISM) conditions, are transformed, through hydrogenation, oxygenation and hydroxylation, to more complex organics - "a step along the path toward amino acids and nucleotides, the raw materials of proteins and DNA, respectively".
Origins of life PAH world hypothesis
So we have a planetoid enveloped in a vaporous cloud of mysterious matter, which is unknown to science.
Well, I've seen enough old Star Trek episodes to know that it's almost certainly a malevolent disembodied life form, which was left imprisoned on that desolate moon eons ago to keep it from threatening other civilizations throughout the galaxy.
Unfortunately, the Huygens probe has probably now provided it with the tools it needs to transport itself off the moon, most likely in a bid to attack and take over our planet Earth. Since it's probably invulnerable to any technology we posess, our only hope is to cleverly lure it into some kind of trap where it will destroy itself, most likely in a large explosion.
Pumbaa: Hey, Timon, ever wonder what those sparkly dots are up there?
Timon: Pumbaa, I don't wonder; I know.
Pumbaa: Oh. What are they?
Timon: They're fireflies. Fireflies that, uh... got stuck up on that big bluish-black thing.
Pumbaa: Oh, gee. I always thought they were balls of gas burning billions of miles away.
Timon: Pumbaa, with you, everything's gas.
RTFA.
Of course it does. That's how they know it's there. They're just not sure what is making it... maybe aromatics.
According to TFA, it does, but the spectrum is very near to methane, which is making it hard to identify this other gas.
Considering that Cassini is a WORKING orbiter around Saturn, a thing we are unlikely to see again in most of our lifetimes, I'm good with them funding the use of it as long as it keeps running, for no other reason than to keep looking for things it missed the first (or hundredth) time around. Same for any other working interplanetary spacecraft. If (and only if) someone can make the case that defunding Cassini will directly free up funding for the next probe to Saturn, then maybe, but I don't believe that will happen.
*groan over the uranus, fartgas, and other dumb jokes.*
Anyway, since this is occuring over the sunlit side of the moon, and that the moon is very far away from the sun, and that solar wind particle action on the moon's atmosphere would be shockingly small, (Saturn's magnetic field would push a good deal away, and even then the distance means a radically lower conentration than we are used to dealing with, meaning solar ions are unlikely as a cause.) Is it possible that there are tiny organic molecules up there with a fluorescent property?
Titan has lots of methane, nitrogen, and ambient radiation from Saturn. Tiny particles just a few molecules in size suspended in the upper atmosphere would be all that's needed. Essentially, glow in the dark organic dust?
It would be interesting to see if there are other re-emission falloff zones in that part of the atmosphere relating to the e-ring charge emissions from Saturn, and other nearby energy sources that could excite a light emitting molecule.