An icy moon of Saturn, Titan is the only Solar System object aside from Earth that boasts stable liquid reservoirs on its surface. It is also the only other body in the Solar System that is sheathed by a thick nitrogen-dominated atmosphere. This vulnerable gaseous envelope—the result of a delicate coupling between photochemistry, radiation, and dynamics—is Nature's laboratory for the synthesis of complex organic molecules.
In the distant past, Titan's atmosphere may have existed in a methane-depleted state, rendering the moon even colder than it is today. In such a "snowball state," I found that Titan's atmosphere would have produced a higher proportion of nitriles to hydrocarbons. This might help explain Titan's "missing ethane" problem and provides a testable hypothesis that the upcoming Dragonfly mission could potentially verify.
Image credit: NASA/JPL–Caltech/Space Science Institute
