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Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in the atmospheres of Titan and JupiterPAHs are important components of the interstellar medium and carbonaceous chondrites, but have never been identified in the reducing atmospheres of the outer solar system. Incompletely characterized complex organic solids (tholins) produced by irradiating simulated Titan atmospheres reproduce well the observed UV/visible/IR optical constants of the Titan stratospheric haze. Titan tholin and a tholin generated in a crude simulation of the atmosphere of Jupiter are examined by two-step laser desorption/multiphoton ionization mass spectrometry. A range of two- to four-ring PAHs, some with one to four alkylation sites, are identified, with a net abundance of about 0.0001 g/g (grams per gram) of tholins produced. Synchronous fluorescence techniques confirm this detection. Titan tholins have proportionately more one- and two-ring PAHs than do Jupiter tholins, which in turn have more four-ring and larger PAHs. The four-ringed PAH chrysene, prominent in some discussions of interstellar grains, is found in Jupiter tholins.
Document ID
19930071264
Acquisition Source
Legacy CDMS
Document Type
Reprint (Version printed in journal)
External Source(s)
Authors
Sagan, Carl
(NASA Headquarters Washington, DC United States)
Khare, B. N.
(NASA Headquarters Washington, DC United States)
Thompson, W. R.
(NASA Headquarters Washington, DC United States)
Mcdonald, G. D.
(Cornell Univ. Ithaca, NY, United States)
Wing, Michael R.
(NASA Headquarters Washington, DC United States)
Bada, Jeffrey L.
(Scripps Institution of Oceanography La Jolla, CA, United States)
Vo-Dinh, Tuan
(NASA Headquarters Washington, DC United States)
Arakawa, E. T.
(Oak Ridge National Lab. TN, United States)
Date Acquired
August 16, 2013
Publication Date
September 1, 1993
Publication Information
Publication: Astrophysical Journal, Part 1
Volume: 414
Issue: 1
ISSN: 0004-637X
Subject Category
Lunar And Planetary Exploration
Accession Number
93A55261
Funding Number(s)
CONTRACT_GRANT: NAGW-1896
CONTRACT_GRANT: N00014-89-J-1422
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Other

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