Titan is one of the largest of Saturn’s moons and has surface liquid, a dense atmosphere \u2014 and … More clouds. (Artist’s impression)<\/p>\n
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According to new data from telescopes, there are clouds in the northern hemisphere of Titan, Saturn\u2019s largest moon. It\u2019s more evidence that Titan, like Earth, has weather \u2014 specifically clouds and rainfall \u2014 though it’s based not on a cycle of liquid water but on liquid hydrocarbons methane and ethane. Titan is also the only solar system moon with a substantial atmosphere as well as rain, rivers, lakes and seas, according to NASA<\/a>.<\/p>\n Welcome to the wild world of Titan, the most Earth-like place in the solar system.<\/p>\n What The Webb Telescope Just Saw<\/p>\n Weather on Titan has been probed before by NASA’s Cassini spacecraft and its Huygens lander, as well as with ground-based telescopes like the Keck Observatory in Hawaii. A new research project combining data from the Keck II telescope with new observations using different infrared filters on NASA\u2019s James Webb Space Telescope to probe to varying depths in Titan\u2019s atmosphere has unearthed evidence of cloud convection in the moon’s northern hemisphere for the first time.<\/p>\n That’s precisely where most of Titan\u2019s lakes and seas are located \u2014 probably replenished by methane and ethane rain. \u201cWe were able to see methane clouds evolving and changing close to Titan\u2019s north pole over multiple days, in the region where large seas and lakes of methane were discovered by the Cassini spacecraft,\u201d said Conor Nixon of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, lead author of a paper published<\/a> in Nature Astronomy. \u201cThis enables us to understand better Titan\u2019s climate cycle, how the methane clouds may generate rain and replenish methane evaporated from the lakes.\u201d<\/p>\n These images of Titan were taken by NASA\u2019s James Webb Space Telescope on July 11, 2023 (top row) and … More the ground-based W.M. Keck Observatories on July 14, 2023 (bottom row). They show methane clouds (denoted by the white arrows) appearing at different altitudes in Titan\u2019s northern hemisphere.<\/p>\n NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Keck Observatory<\/p>\n What It\u2019s Like On Titan<\/p>\n Titan has a 98% nitrogen and 2% methane atmosphere. It has liquid methane rain, lakes, oceans, and other stuff. Those bodies of liquid carve out shorelines, valleys, mountain ridges, icy boulders, mesas and dunes. Satellites have seen all of those physical features before \u2014 and now they\u2019ve seen clouds, evidence for the methane cycle. \u201cOn Titan, methane is a consumable,” said Nixon. \u201cIt\u2019s possible that it is being constantly resupplied and fizzing out of the crust and interior over billions of years. If not, eventually, it will all be gone, and Titan will become a mostly airless world of dust and dunes.”<\/p>\n It’s extremely cold on Titan \u2014 about -290 degrees Fahrenheit (-180 degrees Celsius). Titan’s gravity is 14% of the Earth\u2019s, meaning it would be possible for astronauts to fly.<\/p>\n On its surface, Titan also has complex organic compounds formed from methane and nitrogen in the moon\u2019s atmosphere. These compounds could contain the prebiotic chemistry of the building blocks of life. Webb also found a key carbon-containing molecule in Titan\u2019s complex atmosphere.<\/p>\n Artist\u2019s concept of Dragonfly soaring over the dunes of Saturn\u2019s moon Titan. <\/p>\n NASA\/Johns Hopkins APL\/Steve Gribben<\/p>\n Huygens At Titan<\/p>\n