can methane burn?

[skumara]

can anyone tell me what will happen is i torch a light in titan surface?
There is no oxygen in titan atmosfere but there are a lot methane gas during the day and methane liquid during the night. can these methane burnwithout oxygen?

[Nasor]

You would need oxygen (or some other oxidizer) for the methane on titan to burn.

[Xerxes]

Nope. Without oxygen, there can be no fire. And given the ratio of methane to oxygen, any fire on Titan would be very short lived.

Its also way too cold to even ignite..

[Maddad]

Nasor is correct. The methane will burn if it has an oxidizer such as oxygen. Flourine or chlorine will also combine with methan in burning as they are both strong oxiders. Interestingly, you will not burn in a pure oxygen atmosphere. You would need a reducer to combine with the oxygen. Methane is one reducer, but there are scads (it's a technical term) of others.

[Hypercane]

Odd, I was thinking the same thing.

[Starthane Xyzth]

Interestingly, you will not burn in a pure oxygen atmosphere. You would need a reducer to combine with the oxygen. Methane is one reducer, but there are scads (it's a technical term) of others.

You, taken literally, are a combustible organic mass, especially your hair, adipose tissue (and clothes, if you are wearing them!). In a pure oxygen atmosphere, a human body will most definitely burn - which is what tragically happened to the astonauts in the Apollo 1 command module.

There is no really abundant, significantly reducing gas in our atmosphere. Nitrogen is relatively inert and carbon dioxide forms only a small fraction of a percent.

[Maddad]

Adipose tissue! Thanks for giving me nightmare rememberancs of my Anatomy and Physiology classes ;)

[Starthane Xyzth]

It gives me more nightmares about the need for diets and painstaking exercise regimes to shed a few unwanted kilograms. It's the cursed physiological entity which makes indulging your favourite, hedonistic foods a sin - against yourself...

[geodesic]

Interestingly, you will not burn in a pure oxygen atmosphere,In a similar vein, hydrogen will not react easily with oxygen in a dry environment - it's a self-catalysing reaction

[Nasor]

The atmosphere here on earth used to be full of methane, until photosynthetic life evolved and started producing O2, which gradually "burned" away the methane in the atmosphere.

[skumara]

does it mean that is i plant a tree or drop photosynthetic bacteria in a planet full of methane i can start a cycle to chenge the atmosphere?

[Nasor]

If the life can survive, yes.

[Maddad]

does it mean that is i plant a tree or drop photosynthetic bacteria in a planet full of methane i can start a cycle to chenge the atmosphere?That's part of the idea of terraforming a planet.

[Starthane Xyzth]

Trees as we know them would not survive in a methane atmosphere, even if there was lots of carbon dioxide as well. After all, higher plants only photosynthesise in daylight; at night, they respire as we do, and require gaseous oxygen. Breathing methane would probably be as toxic to a tree as to us.

Various bacteria could certainly do it, though...