Scientists track off methane clouds wandering in Titan Lakes for the first time

Saturn most of the metal moon has become more interesting. On Titan, methane clouds launch cold rain and oil-completely different from the heavy rains we see on the ground. For the first time, scientists collected evidence of the cloud heat in the northern hemisphere in Titan, while monitoring the clouds of methane moon turns over time over its exotic lakes.

By combining data from the Webb Space telescope and the Keck Observatory in Hawaii, a group of scientists noticed the clouds of Titan rising to higher altitudes over time. This new discovery represents the first time that cloud heat load is made in the northern hemisphere of the moon, where most of the Titan lakes and liquid methane seas are located. Detailed results in a Ticket This week was published in the magazine nature.

“This enables us to better understand the Titan climate cycle, and how methane clouds can be born from rain and regenerate methane from lakes,” said Connor Nixon, research scientist at NASA Godard to steal space and study author in a study in A. statement.

Titan is the only moon in the solar system that hosts a large atmosphere, but the largest Saturn moon is shrouded in a layer of yellowish smoky fog. To explore different depths in the atmosphere of Titan, scientists have used many infrared fillers on Webb and Keck to estimate clouds. The team was noticed by Titan in November 2022 and July 2023, where he got clouds in the northern latitudes in the middle and height of the moon. Using space and land notes, scientists note clouds because they appear to be transmitted to higher altitudes over a period of days. However, they could not see any rain that happens directly.

Titan is the only place in the well -known solar system that contains a ground -like cycle of fluid, with rain flowing from clouds and flowing across its surface, filling lakes and seas, and evaporating again in the sky, according to the sky, according to the sky Nassa. But instead of water, Titan possesses methane liquid and ethane.

The strange moon is of great importance to astronomers because it carries a complex organic chemistry despite the abstract temperatures and the invasive water surfaces. Organic molecules are among the basic building blocks of life on Earth, and the study of Titan helps scientists understand the best how different forms of life can develop in a significantly different planetary conditions.

The last results help scientists understand how different worlds develop over time. “On Titan, methane is a consumer,” said Nixon. “It is possible that it will be constantly re -recruited and rid of the dandruff and the interior over the past years. If not, all of this will go in the end and Titan will become an uncompromising world of dust and dunes.”