Weird minerals discovered in simulated Titan environment
In recreating their best guess as to the conditions and environment of Saturn’s moon Titan, scientists have produced a number of weird never-before-seen minerals.
To create Titan-like conditions in the laboratory, the researchers started with a custom-built cryostat, an apparatus to keep things cold. They filled the cryostat with liquid nitrogen to bring the temperature down. They then warmed the chamber slightly, so the nitrogen turned to gas, which is mostly what Titan’s atmosphere contains. Next, they threw in what abounds on Titan, methane and ethane, as well as other carbon-containing molecules, and looked for what formed.
The first things to drop out of their Titan hydrocarbon soup were benzene crystals. Benzene is perhaps best known as a component of gasoline and is a snowflake-shaped molecule made out of a hexagonal ring of carbon atoms. But Titan benzene held a surprise: The molecules rearranged themselves and allowed ethane molecules inside, creating a co-crystal.
The researchers then discovered the acetylene and butane co-crystal, which is probably a lot more common on Titan than benzene crystals, based on what’s known about the moon’s composition, Cable said.
The scientists think that these crystals might be found on the edge of Titan’s methane lakes, encrusted there like a bathtub ring.
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In recreating their best guess as to the conditions and environment of Saturn’s moon Titan, scientists have produced a number of weird never-before-seen minerals.
To create Titan-like conditions in the laboratory, the researchers started with a custom-built cryostat, an apparatus to keep things cold. They filled the cryostat with liquid nitrogen to bring the temperature down. They then warmed the chamber slightly, so the nitrogen turned to gas, which is mostly what Titan’s atmosphere contains. Next, they threw in what abounds on Titan, methane and ethane, as well as other carbon-containing molecules, and looked for what formed.
The first things to drop out of their Titan hydrocarbon soup were benzene crystals. Benzene is perhaps best known as a component of gasoline and is a snowflake-shaped molecule made out of a hexagonal ring of carbon atoms. But Titan benzene held a surprise: The molecules rearranged themselves and allowed ethane molecules inside, creating a co-crystal.
The researchers then discovered the acetylene and butane co-crystal, which is probably a lot more common on Titan than benzene crystals, based on what’s known about the moon’s composition, Cable said.
The scientists think that these crystals might be found on the edge of Titan’s methane lakes, encrusted there like a bathtub ring.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
Crystal growth is Very Cool !
In this case, following the link, it seems as if the ‘co-crystal’ is interstitial and not substitutional.
Either way, I would like to invest in this Lake Side Beach Front property.
We’re have a shortage of fossil fuels? We don’t have no stinkin’ shortage, not while we have Titan! I can see ExxonGulfBPAramco sending settlers to Titan to set up the ultimate service station for space ships needing gas…or even Space Tankers headed back to Earth with a million tons or so of fuel.
BTW, 1) Kekule claimed he was inspired by a dream of six carbon atoms holding hands and dancing to research if that was the structure of Benzene – it was, six atoms interlocked into a six sided ring 2) US Army’s Chemical Corps insignia is a Benzene Ring on Crossed Retorts https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chemical_Corps#/media/File:Chemical_Branch_Insignia.svg
3) A similar structure to a Benzene Ring, but using Iron atoms instead of Carbon is known to chemists as a Ferrous Wheel
Q:
What is the gravity on Titan?
The Master of the overhead-projector, discusses crystalline symmetry—-
“Forbidden Crystal Symmetry”
Dr. Roger Penrose
Oxford Mathematics- 2012
https://youtu.be/7UZvFjXIpSk
55:01
“Aperiodic Geometry & Crystal Symmetry”
Dr. Roger Penrose
March 2006, Western Oregon University
https://youtu.be/eKjZ2W7eXlo
1:37:36