Photochemical enrichment of deuterium in Titans atmosphere: new insights from Cassini-Huygens


Abstract in English

Cassini-Huygens data are used to re-examine the potential sources of the D/H enhancement over solar, measured in methane, in Titans atmosphere. Assuming that the system is closed with respect to carbon, the use of constraints from the Huygens probe for the determination of the current mass of atmospheric methane and the most up-to-date determination of D/H from Cassini/CIRS infrared spectra allow us to show that photochemical enrichment of deuterium is not sufficient to be the sole mechanism yielding the measured D/H value. A possible fractionation between CH3D and CH4 during the escape process may slightly enhance the deuterium enrichment, but is not sufficient to explain the observed D/H value over the range of escape values proposed in the literature. Hence, alternative mechanisms such as a primordial deuterium enrichment must be combined with the photochemical enrichment in Titans atmosphere in order to explain its current D/H value.

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