METHANE • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Methane

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/mˈɛθˌeɪn/ Listen

noun

Methane n. (Chem.) A light, colorless, gaseous, inflammable hydrocarbon, CH4; marsh gas. It is the simplest of the aliphatic hydrocarbons. See Marsh gas, under Gas.

Methane series (Chem.), a series of saturated hydrocarbons, of which methane is the first member and type, and (because of their general chemical inertness and indifference) called also the paraffin (little affinity) series. The lightest members are gases, as methane, ethane; intermediate members are liquids, as hexane, heptane, etc. (found in benzine, kerosene, etc.); while the highest members are white, waxy, or fatty solids, as paraffin proper.

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Etymology of 'Methane'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Methane" Quotes from Famous Books

... planets of the Acquataine Cluster. This was the environment he had chosen: crushing gravity; killing pressures; atmosphere of ammonia and hydrogen, laced with free radicals of sulphur and other valuable but deadly chemicals; oceans of liquid methane and ammonia; "solid ground" consisting of quickly crumbling, eroding ice; howling superpowerful winds that could pick up a mountain of ice and hurl it halfway around the ...

— The Dueling Machine • Benjamin William Bova

... consider that for a long time our astronomers have believed that two general classes of planetary bodies existed. First, the planets which formed at distances far enough from their stellar nucleus to become cool enough to capture hydrogen. These would be large planets rich in hydrogen, ammonia and methane. We have examples of these in the giant outer planets. The second class would include those planets formed so near the stellar center that the high temperature would make it impossible to capture much hydrogen. These would be smaller planets, ...

— Youth • Isaac Asimov

... little interest. In the place where, according to Bode's Law, another planet, corresponding to Mars, should have been, there was only a belt of asteroids. Beyond this was still another belt. And on the other side of the double asteroid belt was the fourth planet, a fifty-thousand-mile-in-diameter methane-ammonia giant which Morey named Zeus in ...

— Islands of Space • John W Campbell

... sub-sub-divided into carnivores, herbivores, and omnivores, with the special specifications for enclosures to contain abyssal creatures requiring extreme pressures, and the equipment for maintaining a healthfully re-poisoned atmosphere for creatures from methane planets. ...

— Sand Doom • William Fitzgerald Jenkins

... Dr. Dale said. "There are positive signs of decreasing pressure in the artificial atmosphere around the settlements on Titan. The pressure is dropping and yet there is no indication that the force screen, holding back the real methane ammonia atmosphere of Titan, is ...

— Treachery in Outer Space • Carey Rockwell and Louis Glanzman