Simulating Titan's upper atmosphere and its photochemistry in the vacuum ultra-violet (VUV)

International audienceTitan, the largest moon of Saturn, has a dense atmosphere whose upper layers are mainly composed of methane (CH4) and molecular nitrogen (N2). The Cassini mission revealed that the interaction between those molecules and the solar VUV radiation, as well as the electrons from Saturn’s magnetosphere, leads to a complex chemistry above an altitude of 800km.Cassini instruments such as INMS or CAPS revealed that this naturally ionized environment contains heavy organic molecules like benzene (C6H6) even at altitudes higher than 900 k