Weather Report from Saturn's Moon Titan

Using data from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope and the Keck II telescope, astronomers found evidence of cloud convection in the northern hemisphere of Titan. Most of Titan’s lakes and seas are located in that hemisphere, and are likely replenished by an occasional rain of methane and ethane. Webb also has detected a key carbon-containing molecule that gives insight into the chemical processes in Titan’s complex atmosphere. Titan is an intriguing world cloaked in a yellowish, smoggy haze. Similar to Earth, the atmosphere is mostly nitrogen and has weather, including clouds and rain. Unlike Earth, whose weather is driven by evaporating and condensing water, frigid Titan has a methane cycle. It evaporates from the surface and rises into the atmosphere, where it condenses to form methane clouds. Occasionally it falls as a chilly, oily rain onto a solid surface where water ice is hard as rocks. “Titan is the only other place in our Solar System that has weather like Earth, ... Read full article.