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Titan
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Saturn's largest moon
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Cold enough and big enough
to have an atmosphere
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Absorption lines of CH4
(methane) seen from Earth
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Atmosphere too thick to see
the ground in optical wavelengths!
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Even thicker than Earth's
atmosphere!
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No other moon with a thick
atmosphere
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90% Nitrogen
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what other solar system body
has a nitrogen rich atmosphere?
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Earth!
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Nitrogen was originally bound
in ammonia (NH3)
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Sunlight broke up ammonia,
hydrogen floated away
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This effect dried out which
other solar system bodies?
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Venus
and Mars
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Lots of methane (CH4)
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Methane and sunlight make
hydrocarbons, in particular ethane
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ethane may have condensed
to make rivers and lakes
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Methane and hydrocarbons
combine to make long chain polymers (plastics)
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Some of the longer chains
fall out of the atmosphere
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probably gooey like melted
plastic
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Infrared images from Hubble
Space Telescope
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light areas may be water
and ammonia ice
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dark areas may be hydrocarbon
lakes
Titan from Voyager (optical)
Titan from HST (infrared)
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