Atmosphere of Saturn's Moon, Titan, Modeled with New Data

Titan, Saturn's largest moon, has intrigued astronomers for years. Now, one scientist has used newly gathered data to confirm a model of Titan's atmosphere, revealing a bit more about this distant world.

The atmosphere of Saturn's largest moon was described by a model that took into account the presence of 83 neutral molecules, 33 ions and 420 different chemical reactions between them. Even though Titan is located much further from the sun than the Earth, the intensity of UV rays is still enough to spur photochemical reactions in the upper layers of Titan's atmosphere.

Now, new data is showing researchers the reality. The new data about the moon's atmosphere was actually taken from several sources, including the Cassini orbiter. This new data revealed that Titan's atmosphere is 1.6 times denser near the surface than Earth's air.

The scientists compared the data with the previously developed model. This revealed that the theoretical description of Titan's atmosphere actually matched the reality quite accurately. That said, there are a few discrepancies; yet these are caused by measurement errors. So far, it seems as if the concentrations of many substances are approximate.

"The coherence of the model with reality means that we can correctly tell where different substances go from Titan's ionosphere and where they come from," said Vladimir Krasnopolsky, the researcher examining Titan's atmosphere, in a news release.

The findings reveal that the model of Titan's atmosphere did indeed match the reality. This helps confirm the model which can lead to further findings when it comes to Saturn's moon.

The findings are published in the journal Icarus.