A Microscopic Look at Titan’s Haze

Scientists recreate the atmosphere of Saturn’s largest moon, Titan.

via SyFy

The haze particles are formed when ultraviolet light from the Sun and/or subatomic particles zipping around space slam into the nitrogen and methane, breaking it down into elements that then rearrange themselves into more complex molecules. Some of them are simple rings of carbon, and some are far more complex molecules called PAHs — polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. It’s not been clear how the simple ones link up to form the bigger ones, but now, for the first time, this process has been simulated in a lab and the results examined using a powerful type of microscope that reveals the basic atomic configurations of the molecules.

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