Extraterrestrial atmosphere star undergoing runaway greenhouse effect. For planets in the habitable zone, it was thought that water photolysis would be strongly limited by cold-trapping of water vapour in the lower atmosphere. However, the extent of HO cold-trapping depends strongly on the amount of non-condensible gases in the atmosphere such as nitrogen N and argon. In the absence of such gases, the likelihood of build-up of oxygen also depends in complex ways on the planet's accretion history, internal chemistry, atmospheric dynamics, and orbital state. Therefore, oxygen, on its own, cannot be considered a robust biosignature. The ratio of nitrogen and argon to
Atmosphere of Titan Atmosphere of Titan The atmosphere of Titan is the layer of gases surrounding Titan, the largest moon of Saturn. It is the only thick atmosphere of a natural satellite in the Solar System. The presence of a significant atmosphere was first suspected by Spanish astronomer Josep Comas i Solà, who observed distinct limb darkening on Titan in 1903, and confirmed by Gerard P. Kuiper in 1944 using a spectroscopic technique that yielded an estimate of an atmospheric partial pressure of methane of the order of 100 millibars (10 kPa). Subsequent observations in the 1970s showed that Kuiper's figures had been