Ethyl cyanide on Titan: Spectroscopic detection and mapping using ALMA
(2014)
HCN ice in Titan's high-altitude southern polar cloud.
Nature 514:7520 (2014) 65-67
Abstract:
Titan's middle atmosphere is currently experiencing a rapid change of season after northern spring arrived in 2009 (refs 1, 2). A large cloud was observed for the first time above Titan's southern pole in May 2012, at an altitude of 300 kilometres. A temperature maximum was previously observed there, and condensation was not expected for any of Titan's atmospheric gases. Here we report that this cloud is composed of micrometre-sized particles of frozen hydrogen cyanide (HCN ice). The presence of HCN particles at this altitude, together with temperature determinations from mid-infrared observations, indicate a dramatic cooling of Titan's atmosphere inside the winter polar vortex in early 2012. Such cooling is in contrast to previously measured high-altitude warming in the polar vortex, and temperatures are a hundred degrees colder than predicted by circulation models. These results show that post-equinox cooling at the winter pole of Titan is much more efficient than previously thought.Modelling of an asteroid photoelectron sheath and implications for a sample return mission
Planetary and Space Science Elsevier 99 (2014) 103-111
Design and performance of the Exo-planet Characterisation Observatory (EChO) integrated payload
Proceedings of SPIE--the International Society for Optical Engineering SPIE, the international society for optics and photonics 9143 (2014) 91432e-91432e-12