The origin of Titan's atmosphere: some recent advances.
It is possible to make a consistent story for the origin of Titan's atmosphere starting with the birth of Titan in the Saturn subnebula. If we use comet nuclei as a model, Titan's nitrogen and methane could have easily been delivered by the ice that makes up approximately 50 per cent of its mass. If Titan's atmospheric hydrogen is derived from that ice, it is possible that Titan and comet nuclei are in fact made of the same protosolar ice. The noble gas abundances are consistent with relative abundances found in the atmospheres of Mars and Earth, the Sun, and the meteorites.
Owen
Tobias
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Institute for Astronomy, University of Hawaii, 2680 Woodlawn Drive, Honolulu, HI 96822, USA. owen@ifa.hawaii.edu
Niemann
H B
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