Tiny Tube Experiments Simulate Solar System's Only Moon With An Atmosphere

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Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) has partnered with the Carnegie Institution for Science to perform laboratory experiments that recreate the conditions of Saturn's moon Titan in a tiny vial.

The experiments corroborate an existing theory regarding the way Titan maintains its dense atmosphere.

For the SwRI and Carnegie experiments, the scientists set out to better understand how Titan maintains its thick nitrogen-rich atmosphere. The team published their findings in a paper in the journal Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta .

Titan, the second-largest moon in our solar system after Jupiter's Ganymede, has a denser atmosphere than Earth. Ever since it was first discovered in 1944, scientists have pondered and investigated the evolution of Titan's atmosphere.

"While just 40 percent the diameter of the Earth, Titan has an atmosphere 1.5 times as dense as the Earth's, even with a lower gravity," SwRI's Dr. Kelly Miller, lead author of the paper, explained in a press statement . "Walking on the surface of Titan would feel a bit like scuba diving."

Unsurprisingly, humans wouldn't be able to survive on the surface of Titan, despite the fact it has an atmosphere. That dense lunar atmosphere is made up of approximately 95 percent nitrogen and 5 percent methane.