Absolute Intensities of the Infrared Bands of Gaseous Acrylonitrile.

Laboratory spectral data (peak positions and integrated band intensities) of the infrared bands of acrylonitrile (CH2CHCN) gas in the region 4000-220 cm-1 are presented. Even though CH2CHCN has not yet been identified in Titan's atmosphere, it is among the possible photochemical and cosmic irradiation products of CH4 + N2 chemistry in the atmosphere of Titan. Laboratory simulations of Titan's atmospheric chemistry also give CH2CHCN as a product species.

The low temperature organic chemistry of Titan's geofluid.

Organic chemistry on Titan and prebiotic chemistry on Earth involve the same N-containing organics: nitriles and their oligomers. Couplings of their chemistry in the three parts of Titan's geofluid (atmosphere, aerosols and surface) seem to play a key role in the organic chemical evolution of the planet. If liquid water was present on Titan, then a prebiotic chemistry, involving eutectics, similar to that of the early Earth, may have occurred.

Titan and exobiological aspects of the Cassini-Huygens mission.

Titan, the largest satellite of Saturn, has a dense N2-CH4 atmosphere rich in organic compounds, both in gas and in aerosol phases. Its surface is probably covered by oceans of liquid methane-ethane mixtures, with many dissolved organics. This quasi planet appears as a natural laboratory to study chemical evolution toward complex organic systems in a planetary environment over a long time scale.