The Photochemistry of Amino Acids Produced on the Polar Cryovolcanic Regions of Titan
The cryovolcanic regions of Titan offer transient opportunities for prebiotic molecules to exist in water-ammonia solutions on the surface of the Saturnian moon. The upcoming NASA's Dragonfly mission will search for high nitrogen concentrations and amino acids on Titan's equatorial terrains. Cryovolcanic features, however, are most common on the polar regions. To mitigate the distance, bubble bursting may encapsulate the prebiotic molecules into aerosols, which Titan's Hadley circulation would subsequently transport to the equator. We investigate whether alanine and glycine survive this meridional journey. Despite the unconstrained meridional wind velocities, our results suggest that the amino acids can survive the transport through the mesosphere. Dragonfly may find cryo-volcanogenic amino acids on Titan's equator. Further, the interaction between the two amino acids increased 10-fold the photodegradation rate of glycine. We justify it based on changes in the environment polarity.
Authors
- Riccardo Giovanni Urso (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6926-1434)
- Zita Martins (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5420-1081)
- F. Hofmann (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0003-3075-8330)
- Cornelia Meinert (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7256-2112)
- Andreas Elsaesser (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3781-8290)
- Nir Goldman (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3052-2128)
- Bruno Pedras (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7303-7926)
- Diogo Gonçalves (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2140-7745)
- Jana Bocková (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3807-2491)
- Severin Wipf (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0288-9766)
- Paul B. Rimmer (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7180-081X)
- Gautam D. Stroscio (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0827-1062)
Institutions
- Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (US)
- University of Lisbon (PT)
- Université Côte d'Azur (FR)
- University of Cambridge (GB)
- University of California System (US)
- Institut de Chimie de Nice (FR)
- Bridge University (SS)
- Osservatorio Astrofisico di Catania (IT)
- Institute for Biotechnology and Bioengineering (PT)
- Freie Universität Berlin (DE)
- University of California, Davis (US)
Publication Details
- Journal
- ACS Earth and Space Chemistry
- Published
- 2025-03-08
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1021/acsearthspacechem.4c00376
- Citations
- 3
- Primary Topic
- Astro and Planetary Science
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 3.46
Funders
- European Commission
- Volkswagen Foundation
- Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica
- Einstein Stiftung Berlin
- Institute for Bioengineering and Biosciences
- Centro de Química Estrutural
- National Energy Technology Laboratory
- Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia
- H2020 European Research Council