Yuk L. YungC. D. Parkinson

Division of Geological and Planetary SciencesCalifornia Institute of Technology

1/4/2005

Chemical Evolution in the Saturnian System

Miller/Urey Experiment

By the 1950s, scientists were in hot pursuit of the origin of life. Around the world, the scientific community was examining what kind of environment would be needed to allow life to begin. In 1953, Stanley L. Miller and Harold C. Urey, working at the University of Chicago, conducted an experiment which would change the approach of scientific investigation into the origin of life.

Miller took molecules which were believed to represent the major components of the early Earth's atmosphere and put them into a closed system

Amino acids

Proteins(Catalysts)

Fatty acids Nucleotides

Lipids(Membranes)

Nucleic acids(Information)

PurinesPyrimidines

Sugars

The chiral Molecules of LifeThe chiral Molecules of Life

C4H2 + H + M ‡ C4H3 + M

C4H3 + H ‡ 2C2H2

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Barrier ~ 3.9 kcal mol-1

Barrier ~ 5.0 kcal mol-1

ΔHrxn ~ -1.6 kcal mol-1

-2 -1 0 1 2

RT

0.0

0.5

1.0

1.5

2.0

2.5

3.0

Counts s

-1 cm

-2

FUSC4_titan_revA_gxz100_vims

H Lyα 1/3Solar reflection X

_1200 10NI x2_ _1380 40N LBH X

107 108 109 1010 1011900

1000

1100

1200

1300

1400

1500

density (cm-3)

altitude (km)

N2CH4

errln(N2)=4.977%

errln(CH4)=1.6233%

ingress dataegress databest fit densitiesVervack ingressVervack egress

Fit of the N2 and CH4 INMS densities inferred from detectors C1 and C2

N2 density from mass 28 peak N2 density from mass 14 peak

107 108 109 1010 1011900

1000

1100

1200

1300

1400

1500

Density (cm-3)

Altitude (km)

Fit of the N2 and CH4 INMS densities as analyzed by Roger Yelle

N2CH4

errN2=20%

errln(CH4)=1.3845%

ingress dataegress databest fit densitiesVervack ingressVervack egress

Atmospheric Densities

INMS Hydrocarbons 1200 km(preliminary)

• C2H2 (acetylene) ~5000 ppm

• C2H6 (ethane) ~300 ppm

• C3H4 (propyne) ~100 ppm

• C3H8 (propane) ~30 ppm

• C4H2 (diacetylene) (10 ppm) ?

• C2N2 (cyanogen) (10 ppm) ?

• C6H6 (benzene) (10 ppm) ?

Isotopic ratios• Nitrogen

– INMS from N2: 14N/15N = 182 (+74, -41) – Gurwell submillimeter (HCN) = 94+/-13 (T dependent)– Jupiter:430 (Owen et al., 2001), H-B:320,Terrestrial:272– HCN enriched relative to N2 in ISM - Terzieva&Herbst,

2000• Carbon

– INMS from CH4: 12C/13C = 93 +/- 1– ISO(HCN) = 89 +/- 9– Gurwell submillimeter (HCN) = 130+/-29– Terrestrial:89

• No evidence of 36Ar ==>less than 10-4

•In Jean’s escape, particles at the exobase moving in the outward direction with sufficient velocity (i.e. high enough kinetic energy) can escape from the planet…typically the vertical flow from the atmosphere is small

•HDE arises when the flow speed becomes large

Hydrodynamic Escape from Planetary Atmospheres

•HDE also differs from gas-kinetic evaporation in that in some circumstances a substantial fraction of the entire thermospheric energy budget is used to power escape of gas from the atmosphere; it is possible that heavier species can be “dragged” along during HDE

•Under this circumstance, it is expected that atmospheric expansion due to HDE will be the dominant loss process

•HDE is an important process in atmospheric evolution of the terrestrial planets and CEGPs and can change the composition of planetary atmospheres from primordial values irreversibly

•hydrogen escape is of particular importance as it affects the oxidation state of the atmosphere and because it results in the loss of water vapour

For Instance…(outstanding problems)

•Did early Venus initially have an ocean? HDE modelling using a water-rich atmosphere on Venus can help assess this problem (Kasting and Pollack, 1983)

•Isotopic ratios (i.e. fractionation: D/H, N, and noble gases) are very different on terrestrial planets even though they are believed to be formed from similar material (Hunten et al., 1987; Pepin, 1991)

and…

•Greenhouse warming by methane in the atmosphere of the early Earth? CH4 density on early Earth dependent on HDE, strongly influencing its atmospheric climate and composition, i.e. (Pavlov et al., 2000; 2001)

•“blow-off” on HD209458b (Osiris) (Vidal-Madjar et al., 2003; 2004)

By Vidal-Madjar, A.

Hydrodynamic Escape

HD Escape Equations

•Watson et al. (1981): shooting method or trial-and-error method to solve steady state HDE equation for early Earth and Venus

•Set of solutions at the critical point (exobase) selected which can match the zero temperature at infinity and set temperature at the lower boundary.

•Calculated temperature and density at the boundary very sensitive to initial settings and I couldn’t reproduce cases using that method

Some Previous Models

•Kasting and Pollack (1983) numerically solve the steady state HDE problem for Venus

•Use an iterative method in which the momentum and energy equations are simultaneously solved

•Not able to get an exact sol’n at the critical point obtaining the supersonic solution

•Instead, they obtained subsonic solutions and argued that the escape flux can be close to the critical escape flux

•Method included infrared cooling by H2O and CO2 while only EUV absorption considered by Watson

•Chassefiere (1996) solves steady state HDE problem from lower boundary to exobase level

•Position of exobase level is determined when the mean free path becomes greater than the scale height

•Outgoing flow at exobase is set to be equivalent to a modified Jean’s escape (ionization and interaction between escaping particles and solar wind considered)

•Application to water-rich early Cytherian atmosphere

•Using the equations 1, 2, and 3 with B.C.’s etc, the HD equations can be solved using 1st order Lax-Friedriechs scheme, Godunov method, or Finite Difference method since these are linear advection equations (hyperbolic)

•We use WENO (weighted essentially non-oscillatory) finite difference scheme with AMR (adaptive mesh refinement)

Open Source Ions over Ring Plane