Nitrogen in Titan's Atmospheric Aerosol Factory.
Résumé
Titan's organic aerosols are presumed to contain a large amount of nitrogen as inferred from the in situ measurements of the ACP instrument on board the Huygens probe. They show major emissions of ammonia and hydrogen cyanide after pyrolysis of the refractory nuclei of the atmospheric aerosols. Molecular nitrogen is a rather chemically inert molecule and the processes leading to the high nitrogen content of Titan's aerosols are far from being understood. Here we synthesize the results obtained on Titan's nitrogen composition from analysis of laboratory analogues produced with the PAMPRE experimental setup. These analogues are compared with the in situ measurements of the Cassini CAPS-IBS instrument.