Knowledge Bank

The complexity of spectra returned from the Voyager 1 encounter with Saturn and its moon Titan has created an opportunity for direct cooperation between laboratory and observational analyses. The available laboratory spectra for several candidate molecular species in Titan’s atmosphere were not adequate for establishing identifications and abundances from the Voyager observations. Laboratory Fourier transform spectra have been recorded of molecules which might be present in an $N2-H2-CH4$ atmosphere for comparison with the Voyager infrared spectrometer (IRIS) data. Molecules studied include methyl acetylene, propane, propene, 1-butene, 1,3-butadiene, cyanoacetylene, and cyanogen. Comparison with the observed spectra have lead to the tentative identifications of methyl acetylene and propane on Titan and Saturn.