UH Chemistry Seminar

Titan and Methane - Like Earth and Water

by Prof. J. Lunine, University of Arizona, Tucson

Titan's dense nitrogen atmosphere supports a "methanological" cycle remarkably akin to the Earth's hydrologic cycle, and a rich stratospheric chemistry that produces a wealth of organic products that make their way to the surface. Methane lakes, ethane vapors, organic sands, and benzene patches are some of what the Cassini-Huygens mission has found near or on the surface. How this organic world works, and the implications for prebiotic chemistry, will be described.

Jonathan I. Lunine is Professor of Planetary Sciences and Physics and a Galileo Circle Faculty Fellow at the University of Arizona, Tucson. He is a Distinguished Visiting Scientist at NASA¹s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, where he serves on the Director¹s Council. His research interests center broadly on the formation and evolution of planets and planetary systems, the nature of organics in the outer solar system, and the processes that lead to the formation of habitable worlds. He is an interdisciplinary scientist on the Cassini mission to Saturn, and on the James Webb Space Telescope, as well as co-investigator on a Spitzer Space Telescope legacy project and the Juno mission under development for launch to Jupiter.. Dr. Lunine is the author of over 170 scientific papers and of the books Earth: Evolution of a Habitable World (Cambridge University Press, 1999), and Astrobiology: A Multidisciplinary Approach (Pearson Addison-Wesley, 2005). He is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and of the American Geophysical Union, which awarded him the James B. Macelwane medal. Other awards include the Harold C. Urey Prize (American Astronomical Society) and Ya. B. Zeldovich Award of COSPAR's Commission B. He earned a B.S. in Physics and Astronomy from the University of Rochester in 1980, followed by M.S. (1983) and Ph.D. (1985) degrees in Planetary Science from the California Institute of Technology.

Event Sponsor
Chemistry, NatSci

More Information
Kaiser, Ralf, 9565731, ralfk@hawaii.edu

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