“The presence of methane is critical to the existence of Titan’s atmosphere,” said Dr. Kelly Miller. “Scientists think an internal source must replenish the methane, or else the atmosphere has a geologically short lifetime.”

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Saturn’s largest moon, Titan, is the only moon in the solar system with a dense atmosphere which is comprised of thick hazes of 95 percent nitrogen (N2) and 5 percent methane (NH4) that require radar instruments to see the moon’s surface. But what processes are responsible for keeping this thick atmosphere from escaping to space? This is what a recent study published in Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta hopes to address as a team of researchers led by the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) investigated how processes occurring in Titan’s interior could be fueling Titan’s atmosphere, specifically the methane.

“The presence of methane is critical to the existence of Titan’s atmosphere,” said Dr. Kelly Miller, who is a SwRI research scientist and lead author of the study. “The methane is removed by reactions caused by sunlight and would disappear in about 30 million years after which the atmosphere would freeze onto the surface. Scientists think an internal source must replenish the methane, or else the atmosphere has a geologically short lifetime.”

For the study, the researchers conducted a series of laboratory experiments with organic matter obtained from the Murchison meteorite to simulate conditions on Titan that could help explain how its atmosphere is replenished from the interior. In the end, the researchers found that temperatures above 250 degrees Celsius (482 degrees Fahrenheit) result in the methane production that is enough to replenish Titan’s atmosphere, along with enough nitrogen production to replenish the atmosphere, as well.

“This process is like a cosmic CT scan, where we can look through different slices of cosmic history and track how matter clumped together at different epochs,” team co-leader Mathew Madhavacheril of the University of Pennsylvania said in a statement. “It gives us a direct look into how the gravitational influence of matter changed over billions of years.”

In order for the team to build this so-called CT scan of the universe, they needed to turn to light that has existed almost as long as the cosmos itself.

With such ancient light, it’s possible to track the changes the universe underwent as gravity reshaped it over around 13.8 billion years.

The first trial of an Australian-developed technology has detected mysterious objects by sifting through signals from space like sand on a beach.

Astronomers and engineers at CSIRO, Australia’s national science agency, developed the specialized system, CRACO, for their ASKAP radio telescope to rapidly detect mysterious fast radio bursts and other space phenomena.

The new technology has now been put to the test by researchers led by the Curtin University node of the International Center for Radio Astronomy (ICRAR) in Western Australia.