Bubbles in Titan's seas: nucleation, growth and RADAR signature

Abstract

In the polar regions of Titan, the main satellite of Saturn, hydrocarbon seas have been discovered by the Cassini-Huygens mission. RADAR observations have revealed surprising and transient bright areas over Ligeia Mare surface. As suggested by recent research, bubbles could explain these strange features. However, the nucleation and growth of such bubbles, together with their RADAR reflectivity, have never been investigated. All of these aspects are critical to an actual observation. We have thus applied the classical nucleation theory to our context, and we developed a specific radiative transfer model that is appropriate for bubbles streams in cryogenic liquids. According to our results, the sea bed appears to be the most plausible place for the generation of bubbles, leading to a signal comparable to observations. This conclusion is supported by thermodynamic arguments and by RADAR properties of a bubbly column. The latter are also valid in the case of bubble plumes, due to gas leaking from the sea floor.

arXiv commentPublished in The Astrophysical Journal

References in corpus (2)

• Titan's lakes chemical composition: sources of uncertainties and variability
• Bubble streams in Titan's seas as product of liquid N2-CH4-C2H6 cryogenic mixture

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• The floatability of aerosols and waves damping on Titan's seas
• The Fate of Simple Organics on Titan's Surface: A Theoretical Perspective
• Science goals and new mission concepts for future exploration of Titan's atmosphere geology and habitability: Titan POlar Scout/orbitEr and In situ lake lander and DrONe explorer (POSEIDON)