The JWST Is So Powerful It Can See The Clouds And Sea Of Saturn's Moon Titan

JWST spotted two methane clouds over Titan, including one above its largest sea, Kraken Mare.

Key Takeaways:

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) captured never-before-seen details of Titan’s thick, hazy atmosphere.
Scientists were thrilled to find two methane clouds, one over the massive Kraken Mare sea.
Follow-up observations with the Keck Observatory confirmed cloud activity two days later.
JWST’s powerful instruments will soon reveal more about Titan’s chemical composition.
NASA’s upcoming Dragonfly mission will explore Titan’s skies with a drone.

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New Discoveries in Titan’s Hazy Atmosphere

Saturn’s largest moon, Titan, has long intrigued scientists with its dense atmosphere, methane seas, and Earth-like weather patterns. Now, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has provided breathtaking new insights into this alien world, spotting two clouds in Titan’s hazy skies during observations on November 4, 2022.

JWST’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) captured images showing distinct bright and dark patches on Titan’s surface, confirming the presence of the methane clouds. One cloud appeared directly over Kraken Mare, Titan’s largest known sea. This discovery delighted researchers, including planetary scientist Heidi Hammel, who called the findings “fantastic.”

Two views of Saturn’s moon Titan captured by the James Webb Space Telescope’s NIRCam instrument. (Image credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, Webb Titan GTO Team/Alyssa Pagan (STScI))

Conor Nixon, an astronomer at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, has dedicated 15 hours of JWST’s observation time to studying Titan’s atmosphere. The goal is to map its thick haze, identify new gases, and understand its unique weather system.

Tracking Titan’s Cloud Movement

To see how Titan’s clouds evolved, scientists quickly turned to the Keck Observatory in Hawai’i, which captured additional images just two days later. They were thrilled to find clouds in the same locations, though slightly altered in shape, suggesting active atmospheric processes.

On the left, the James Webb Space Telescope Nov. 4, 2022, observations of Titan; on the right, Keck Observatory’s view two days later. (Image credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, Webb Titan GTO Team/Alyssa Pagan (STScI))

However, researchers aren’t certain if Keck saw the same clouds or newly formed ones. Since Titan’s northern hemisphere is in late summer, increased solar radiation could be fueling more frequent cloud activity.

Beyond NIRCam’s images, JWST’s Near-Infrared Spectrograph (NIRSpec) collected light spectra, which will help scientists identify the specific compounds in Titan’s lower atmosphere. A bright spot near the moon’s south pole is also under investigation.

JWST is set to return to Titan in mid-2023, this time using its Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) to further analyze its atmosphere’s chemical composition. These observations are crucial, as there are currently no spacecraft visiting Saturn after the Cassini mission ended in 2017.

On the left, the James Webb Space Telescope Nov. 4, 2022, observations of Titan; in the middle, Keck Observatory’s view two days later; on the right Keck’s view Nov. 7, 2022. (Image credit: NASA/STScI/W. M. Keck Observatory/Judy Schmidt)

NASA’s upcoming Dragonfly mission, expected to launch in 2027, will send a drone to explore Titan’s surface and atmosphere, providing even more groundbreaking discoveries about this mysterious moon.