Study of Chemical Processes Initiated by Electrical Discharge in Titan-Related Atmosphere at Laboratory Temperature and Pressure

Abstract

The chemical processes initiated by electrical discharges in prebiotic atmospheres became a hot topic during the past decade due to the recent extensive discovery of exoplanets. The biggest atmospheric data collection is currently available about the atmosphere of the Saturn's moon Titan that is composed mainly of nitrogen and methane at low surface temperature of about 95 K and pressure of about 1.5 atm. The present work deals with the laboratory simulation of the chemical processes initiated by the electrical discharge in the gaseous mixture related to the Titan atmosphere under laboratory conditions. The ongoing chemical processes, the resulting stable products, and their transformation into more complex substances were studied by the in situ mass spectrometry with proton ionization (PTR-MS) of the exhausting gas. The presence of many aliphatic and some aromatic hydrocarbons was confirmed as well as many amino and cyano compounds. The increasing concentration of methane has produced more substances with higher molecular weight and less simple substances that were consumed in the formation of more complex substances.