Many of the gases in the atmosphere of titan such as methane,ethane and acetylene are highly flammable. Why...

Question

then does titans atmosphere not catch fire? (Hint:Why can flammable materials burn on earths surface? What is "burning".)

Answer 1

No oxygen of course. NASA has looked into heating space suits for use on Titan by using a flame generated by burning oxygen from a tank in the Titan atmosphere. Very practical, don't you think?

Answer 2

I suspect that they are trying to remind you that burning is oxidation.

Things burn when they combine with oxygen.

It is believed that the moon, Titan, does not have significant amounts of oxygen in its atmosphere, therefore you can't have burning.

If you where on titan and wanted to have a cookstove fire, if you had a little can of oxygen (instead of the propane we use on earth), you could probably "burn" the titan "air" in a little flame using your oxygen can, and it would look about like a propane stove on earth.

Answer 3

Combustion is the chemical reaction of things with oxygen. If there is no oxygen there is no fire. Jupiter's atmosphere does not contain oxygen, so there is nothing to burn the flammable gases with.

Answer 4

to have fire you need to have 3 things to get together- fuel,oxygen and heat.
,jupiter,saturn and all the gas giants have the fuel and maybe the oxygen(with enough heat hydrocarbons may release oxygen ) , so guess what's missing???(hint: they are a bit far from the sun.)titan is a moon, check out the weather there"today at titan the day's temperature will have a high of -178degrees Celsius "
go figure.
God bless,
gabe

Answer 5

Because there is no oxygen in Titan's atmosphere. Fire is a chemical reaction in which oxygen combines with another element or compound, like hydrogen or methane. No oxygen, no fire.

Answer 6

Burning is an oxidation process. So, what do you need for oxidation to occur?