Journal article
ALMA detection and astrobiological potential of vinyl cyanide on Titan
- Abstract:
- Recent simulations have indicated that vinyl cyanide is the best candidate molecule for the formation of cell membranes/vesicle structures in Titan's hydrocarbon-rich lakes and seas. Although the existence of vinyl cyanide (C2H3CN) on Titan was previously inferred using Cassini mass spectrometry, a definitive detection has been lacking until now. We report the first spectroscopic detection of vinyl cyanide in Titan's atmosphere, obtained using archival data from the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), collected from February to May 2014. We detect the three strongest rotational lines of C2H3CN in the frequency range of 230 to 232 GHz, each with >4σ confidence. Radiative transfer modeling suggests that most of the C2H3CN emission originates at altitudes of ≳200 km, in agreement with recent photochemical models. The vertical column densities implied by our best-fitting models lie in the range of 3.7 × 1013 to 1.4 × 1014 cm-2. The corresponding production rate of vinyl cyanide and its saturation mole fraction imply the availability of sufficient dissolved material to form ~107 cell membranes/cm3 in Titan's sea Ligeia Mare.
- Publication status:
- Published
- Peer review status:
- Peer reviewed
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(Preview, Version of record, pdf, 385.2KB, Terms of use)
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- Publisher copy:
- 10.1126/sciadv.1700022
Authors
+ NASA
Astrobiology Institute
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- Grant:
- through the Goddard Center for Astrobiology
- Publisher:
- American Association for the Advancement of Science
- Journal:
- Science Advances More from this journal
- Volume:
- 3
- Issue:
- 7
- Article number:
- e1700022
- Publication date:
- 2017-07-28
- Acceptance date:
- 2017-06-27
- DOI:
- ISSN:
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2375-2548
- Pmid:
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28782019
- Language:
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English
- Keywords:
- Pubs id:
-
pubs:713203
- UUID:
-
uuid:d99d6ca3-2887-464d-a984-0e5ff04700f3
- Local pid:
-
pubs:713203
- Source identifiers:
-
713203
- Deposit date:
-
2017-11-06
Terms of use
- Copyright holder:
- Palmer et al
- Copyright date:
- 2017
- Notes:
- Copyright © 2017 The Authors, some rights reserved; exclusive licensee American Association for the Advancement of Science. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial license, which permits use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, so long as the resultant use is not for commercial advantage and provided the original work is properly cited.
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