"How much tidal stress would be necessary to keep geologically active a world as massive as Mars?"
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Titan Focus Group
Jonathan Lunine, Chair
University of Arizona
jlunine@lpl.arizona.eduExternal Link: Titan Focus Group Website
Since the discovery of a methane atmosphere around Titan by Gerard Kuiper in 1944, Titan has been a world that has attracted much exobiological interest. Titan provides us with a planet-sized laboratory for testing the synthesis of organic compounds in a nearly neutral redox environment, over large spatial scales, both with and without liquid water. These natural chemical experiments could be ongoing today, and the products of such experiments in localized regions of elevated temperatures would be well preserved under the ambient 95 K temperatures and high atmospheric densities that shield the surface from destructive radiation.
The Titan Focus Group (TFG) was initiated in November 2002. It is open to all interested parties, but all individuals who desire to participate are asked to identify themselves, their institution, and to commit to a certain amount of time and activity. Most of the work of the group is by e-mail, but two or three meetings of the focus group are organized around convenient ancillary meetings (such as the NAI annual meeting).
