The Titan Project is a new direction for our
group which has involved the study of the
organic chemistry of
Saturn's
large moon, Titan. Ion and photochemistry in the
dense upper atmosphere of this object produces
large quantities of organic aerosols, dubbed
tholins. These tholins fall to the 100K surface
and providing the organic feedstock for
subsequent hydrolysis or oxidation chemistry.
The development of this chemistry , its
potential role in prebiological processes on
Titan are of particular interest. The work in
our group involves laboratory generation of
tholin analogues and the determination of
physical characteristics and chemical reactivity
of this complex material. Short term goals are
associated with providing interpretive insight
into the Cassini-Huygens mission data coming
back in early 2005 as well as to provide design
input for a new Titan surface probe containing
the instrumentation for a potential follow-on
mission to probe directly the Titan surface
chemistry. This work is in collaboration with
scientists at the UA Planetary Science
Department, Caltech and the Jet Propulsion
Laboratory.
Prof. Mark A. Smith
Department Head
Department of Chemistry
University of Arizona
P.O. Box 210041
Tucson, Arizona 85721
Phone: 520.621.2115 º FAX: 520.621.8407
email:
msmith@email.arizona.edu
Saturn's
large moon, Titan. Ion and photochemistry in the
dense upper atmosphere of this object produces
large quantities of organic aerosols, dubbed
tholins. These tholins fall to the 100K surface
and providing the organic feedstock for
subsequent hydrolysis or oxidation chemistry.
The development of this chemistry , its
potential role in prebiological processes on
Titan are of particular interest. The work in
our group involves laboratory generation of
tholin analogues and the determination of
physical characteristics and chemical reactivity
of this complex material. Short term goals are
associated with providing interpretive insight
into the Cassini-Huygens mission data coming
back in early 2005 as well as to provide design
input for a new Titan surface probe containing
the instrumentation for a potential follow-on
mission to probe directly the Titan surface
chemistry. This work is in collaboration with
scientists at the UA Planetary Science
Department, Caltech and the Jet Propulsion
Laboratory.
