Astrobiology

New Insights Into the cemistry of Titan's Ionosphere from the Cassini spacecraft

Name: New Insights Into the cemistry of Titan's Ionosphere from the Cassini spacecraft
Start: 2006-11-24T16:00:00+01:00
End: 2006-11-24T17:30:00+01:00
Location: AlbaNova Main Building

by Dr Wolf Dietrich Geppert (Department of Molecular Physics, AlbaNova)

Friday 24 Nov 2006, 16:00 → 17:30 Europe/Stockholm

FA32 (AlbaNova Main Building)

FA32

AlbaNova Main Building

Roslagstullbacken 21

Description

At one of the flybys of the Cassini Spacecraft near Saturn’s satellite Titan the composition of the moon’s ionosphere was analysed using the Ion-Neutral-Mass Spectrometer (INMS). New species were detected and the obtained data partly contradicted earlier model predictions about the chemistry of Titan’s Ionosphere. I will discuss the problems with the interpretation of these results, the insights from new model calculations and their consequences on our understanding of the atmosphere of one of the most interesting objects in the solar system. As an introduction I would recommend the following articles (they are also attached as .pdf files).