NASA Discovers Aromatic Flavors on Saturn's Moon Titan

What sort of aromatic flavors would you encounter on Saturn's moon, Titan? That's a good question, and it's one that NASA scientists have managed to figure out. Using lab experiments to simulate Titan's chemistry, researchers have managed to classify a previously unidentified material discovered by NASA's Cassini spacecraft.

"Now we can say that this material has a strong aromatic character, which helps us understand more about the complex mixture of molecules that makes up Titan's haze," said Melissa Trainer, one of the researchers, in a news release.

In order to better understand the mixture of molecules, which was first detected with Cassini's Composite Infrared Spectrometer, the researchers combined gases in a chamber and let them react. The general idea was that if the scientists managed to use the right gases under the right conditions, they could recreate the same products found in Titan's atmosphere.

The researchers began with the two gases most plentiful in Titan's atmosphere: nitrogen and methane. Then, they added a third gas, tweaking the "recipe" of the experiment. First, they began with benzene and then followed it with a series of closely related chemicals found in the moon's atmosphere. In the end, they chose an aromatic that contained nitrogen, which matched up well with a distinctive signature that had been extracted from Titan data.

"Titan's chemical makeup is a veritable zoo of complex molecules," said Scott Edgington, one of the researchers, in a news release. "With the combination of laboratory experiments and Cassini data, we gain an understanding of just how complex and wondrous this Earth-like moon really is."

The findings are the closest to recreating the Cassini data with the use of lab experiments. This, in turn, will tell scientists a little bit more about Titan's chemical makeup, which could shed new light on the moon's atmosphere and could reveal further insight into other moons across our galaxy.