Credit: Wikimedia Commons, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Caltech, Space Science Institute, John Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, University of Arizona
Scientists have explored the chemistry at work when combining two gases: one composed of two-ring molecular structure known as naphthyl radicals (upper left), and the other composed of a hydrocarbon called vinylacetylene (lower left). The white spheres represent hydrogen atoms and the dark spheres represent carbon atoms. Behind these 3-D molecular representations is an image of Saturn’s moon Titan, taken by NASA’s Cassini spacecraft.