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Tholins as coloring agents on outer solar system bodies
| Content Provider | NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS) |
|---|---|
| Author | Cruikshank, Dale P. DalleOre, Cristina M. Imanaka, Hiroshi |
| Copyright Year | 2005 |
| Description | The red colors of many solid bodies in outer Solar System may be caused by tholins, which are refractory organic complexes, incorporated in their surface materials. Tholins synthesized in the laboratory are shown to match the colors of these bodies when their optical properties are used in rigorous scattering models. We review recent successes in modeling the spectra of icy outer Solar System bodies with tholins as the coloring agents. New work on the systematic laboratory synthesis and analysis of tholins made by cold plasma discharge in mixtures of gaseous CH4/N2 shows that the composition of the tholin depends strongly on the pressure in the reaction chamber, and only weakly on the mixing fraction of CH4 relative to N2. In tholins made at high pressure (e.g., 23 hPa) the abundance of aliphatic hydrocarbons is greater and the abundance of aromatic hydrocarbons is less than in tholins made at low pressure (e.g., 0.13 hPa). Tholins made at low deposition pressures show a greater abundance of N-H bonds. |
| File Size | 780392 |
| Page Count | 12 |
| File Format | |
| Alternate Webpage(s) | http://archive.org/details/NASA_NTRS_Archive_20050182121 |
| Archival Resource Key | ark:/13960/t2g78bt3g |
| Language | English |
| Publisher Date | 2005-01-18 |
| Access Restriction | Open |
| Subject Keyword | Astronomy Methane Stellar Color Cold Plasmas Atmospheric Scattering Gas Giant Planets Aliphatic Hydrocarbons Solar System Nitrogen Ntrs Nasa Technical Reports Server (ntrs) Nasa Technical Reports Server Aerodynamics Aircraft Aerospace Engineering Aerospace Aeronautic Space Science |
| Content Type | Text |
| Resource Type | Article |
