Titan Tholins

The combination of GC x GC with TOFMS has considerable potential for the study of samples of astro-biological significance, for example in the study of complex hydrocarbon mixtures extracted from Late Archean sediments [31] or in characterizing the products of laboratory synthesis of Titan tholins [32]. Presented here is the general principles of two-dimensional gas chromatography-time-of-flight mass spectrometry (GC x GC-TOFMS) analysis for the... 

McGuigan, M.,Waite, J.H., Imanaka, H., Sacks, R.D. (2006) Analysis of Titan tholin pyrolysis products by comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography-time-of-flight... 

These new results only became possible when the groups of H. Waite and B. Magee at the South West Research Institute (SWRI) in San Antonio, Texas, combined analytical data obtained from two different instruments. These are the ion and neutral mass spectrometer (INMS), which obtained data on small to medium-sized molecules in the upper atmosphere of Titan (950-1,150 km) and the Cassini plasma spectrometer (CAPS), which also registered particles from tholins, both positive (100-350 Da) and negative ions (20-8,000 Da) (Waite et al., 2007 Atrey, 2007). 

The interior and atmospheric composition of the Jovian planets and Titan differ from our terrestrial planets in particular, Jovian planets and Titan contain complex organic solids named tholins [152]. Sagan et al. [153] diermochemically... 

Tholins are complex organics that form via photolysis reaction in the atmosphere of Titan, the largest moon of Saturn, which produces a thick reddish-brown haze. As for the material reported here tholin material can be produced in the laboratory by cold plasma discharge in a nitrogen-methane mixture. 

Waite JH, Young DT, Cravens TE, Coates AJ, Ciary FJ, Magee B, Westlake J. The process of Tholin formation in Titan s upper atmosphere. Science. 2007 316 870-5. 

For astrobiological studies it is important to note that tholins can act as an effective screen for ultraviolet radiation, protecting the surface from it. A wide variety of soil bacteria are able to use tholins as their sole source of carbon. It is thought tholins on Earth may have been the first microbial food for heterotrophic microorganisms before autotrophy evolved. Sekine et al., 2008 [304] studied the role and formation of tholins in Titan s atmosphere. 

Nash, D.B. On lo s 2.788-micron band origin by SO2 orH20 Icarus 107,418-421 (1994) Neish, C.D., Somogyi, A., Smith, M.A. Titan s primordial soup formation of amino acids via low-temperature hydrolysis of tholins. Astrobiology 10,337-347 (2010)... 

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