In an environment of insufficient oxygen, Methane is the lowest energy state of carbon and hydrogen. A planet/moon forming with insufficient oxygen and sufficient hydrogen & carbon is going to form Methane. If large amounts of carbon exist rather than the 1/4 ratio to hydrogen, then some is going to form ethane. (or other similar basic ratios)
Notice all the trace amount of hydrocarbons found on Titan (as measured with their Gas Chromatograph and Mass Spectrometer)
http://sci.esa.int/science-e/www/object/index.cfm?fobjectid=31187
They are all the most basic ratios of those combinations. There is no Heptane, Heptene, Heptyne, Cycloheptane, Heptadiene, Octane, Octene, Octyne, Cyclooctane, Octadiene, Nonane, Nonene, Nonyne, Cyclononane, Nonadiene, Decane, Decene, Decyne, Cyclodecane, Decadiene and so on. In crude oil we get carbon strings hundreds of atoms long.
What was found on Titan wasn’t complex hydrocarbons, it was the most basic, simplest hydrocarbons that can exist.
What is the most basic, simplest hydrocarbon that we can detect on Titan from here?
'Splain me.
I will listen. And learn.
/johnny