Publication Date:
2017-07-29
Description:
Recent simulations have indicated that vinyl cyanide is the best candidate molecule for the formation of cell membranes/vesicle structures in Titan’s hydrocarbon-rich lakes and seas. Although the existence of vinyl cyanide (C 2 H 3 CN) on Titan was previously inferred using Cassini mass spectrometry, a definitive detection has been lacking until now. We report the first spectroscopic detection of vinyl cyanide in Titan’s atmosphere, obtained using archival data from the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), collected from February to May 2014. We detect the three strongest rotational lines of C 2 H 3 CN in the frequency range of 230 to 232 GHz, each with 〉4 confidence. Radiative transfer modeling suggests that most of the C 2 H 3 CN emission originates at altitudes of 200 km, in agreement with recent photochemical models. The vertical column densities implied by our best-fitting models lie in the range of 3.7 x 10 13 to 1.4 x 10 14 cm –2 . The corresponding production rate of vinyl cyanide and its saturation mole fraction imply the availability of sufficient dissolved material to form ~10 7 cell membranes/cm 3 in Titan’s sea Ligeia Mare.
Electronic ISSN:
2375-2548
Topics:
Natural Sciences in General
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