Abstract

Nanoparticles (NPs), dust and aerosols are ubiquitous species in planetary atmospheres in the Solar System (e.g. Earth, Titan or Pluto) (Tielens 2013), as well as in other exoplanets (Beaulieu et al. 2012). Depending on their size, shape, chemical composition and distribution they may strongly change their physical and chemical properties and may, in particular, affect the climate and the energy balance of the planets via their interaction with the radiation field. NPs act as cloud condensation germs, and therefore, modify as well cloud properties (Twomey 1991, Zhang et al. 2015). Furthermore, organic aerosols do have astrobiological implications, as they can be a source for prebiotic material in the early Earth’s or Titan’s atmosphere. Observations of the Cassini-Huygens Mission, showing the presence of complex organic aerosols (haze) in Titan’s upper atmosphere (Waite et al. 2007, López-Puertas et al. 2013), indicate that the present understanding of the complex organic chemistry and of nanoparticle formation from atmospheric gases in planetary atmospheres is still rather limited.