Wiktionary
n. (context organic chemistry astronomy English) Any of several poorly classified heteropolymers derived from simple hydrocarbons and ammonia formed by solar irradiation in the atmospheres of icy planets and moons
Wikipedia
Tholins (after the ancient Greek word () meaning "sepia ink") are a class of heteropolymer molecules formed by solar ultraviolet irradiation of simple organic compounds such as methane or ethane. Tholins do not form naturally on modern-day Earth, but they are found in great abundance on the surface of icy bodies in the outer Solar System. They usually have a reddish-brown appearance.
Usage examples of "tholin".
It was I who prepared the armor and sword of Ashen-Shugar, leaving them with the Hammer of Tholin and my gift to the dragon, so that centuries later you would discover them.
Should we expect an icy surface covered with deep tholin sediments, a hydrocarbon ocean with at most a few organic encrusted islands poking up here and there, a world of crater lakes, or something more subtle that we haven't yet figured out?
CH, CN and CC functional groups are evident in the imaginary part of the refractive index, as expected from the gas phase products that are the tholin precursors.
The volatile component of the tholin was examined by sequential and nonsequential pyrolytic gas chromatography and mass spectrometry.
And as she walked, bringing nothing but more miles of tholin slush into view - no roads, no trees, no gas stations - she became oppressed, trapped by the lifeless murk.
Any kind of surface car was going to be impractical, given the stiffness of the tholin slush.
Any kind of surface car was going to be impractical, given the stiddness of the tholin slush.
The tholins make up the smog in the upper atmosphere, and they rain steadily down onto the land.
Dropping tholins into water may be relevant to the early Earth, but not, it would seem, to Titan.
With tholins mixed into liquid water-even for only a thousand years the surface of Titan may be much further along toward the origin of life than we thought.