NASA’s Cassini spies methane clouds on Saturn’s moon Titan

Flying past Saturn’s moon Titan, NASA’s Cassini spacecraft has caught a few glimpses of methane clouds speeding over the enormous moon’s hydrocarbon seas in its northern polar region.

Clouds developed and dissipated over Ligeia Mare, a roughly 310-mile-wide sea of methane and ethane that ranks as Titan’s second-largest lake. Tracked for more than two days in late July, the pale apparitions’ movements revealed wind speeds of 7 to 10 mph.

“It was exciting to see them because we have been waiting for a while now,” said Elizabeth Turtle, a planetary scientist working with the Cassini imaging team at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab in Laurel, Md.

It’s been a long time since such floating clumps of methane gas have been spotted in the icy moon’s nitrogen-rich atmosphere. Ever since a major storm blew through Titan’s midsection near the end of 2010, the skies on this Saturnian satellite have remained largely clear, Turtle said. But this sunny weather caught some scientists off guard: According to their models, more clouds should have started to crop up as Titan approached its summer season.

Such seasonal changes are more challenging to track far out in the solar system, given that a year on Titan lasts some 30 years on Earth (and each season is about seven years long). It takes a while to establish “annual” patterns on such long time scales, and so it becomes particularly disconcerting when the atmosphere’s behavior doesn’t fit the predicted models.

The clouds then are a welcome sign that perhaps the planetary scientists’ long-held theories are not too far off base.

“It’s just a tantalizing hint that the summer storms are starting,” Turtle said, “but we’ll have to keep observing to see.”

Cassini is scheduled for another flyby in late August that could reveal whether clouds are building for some summer tempests, as they predict.

Scientists want to understand Titan in part because it helps them refine atmospheric models that they could then apply to far-off exoplanets and other as-yet impenetrable worlds. It is, after all, the only world in our neighborhood with a thick atmosphere and stable bodies of liquid on its surface.

It’s also one of the few spots in our solar system very rich in complex organic molecules, giving it some potential for life-friendly environments. (The chances of any form of life ever having existed are still very low, however — as low as the surface temperature, which sits at about 290 degrees below zero.)

Talk to us

> Give us your news tips.

> Send us a letter to the editor.

> More Herald contact information.

More in Local News

A firefighter stands in silence before a panel bearing the names of L. John Regelbrugge and Kris Regelbrugge during the ten-year remembrance of the Oso landslide on Friday, March 22, 2024, at the Oso Landslide Memorial in Oso, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
‘Flood of emotions’ as Oso Landslide Memorial opens on 10th anniversary

Friends, family and first responders held a moment of silence at 10:37 a.m. at the new 2-acre memorial off Highway 530.

Julie Petersen poses for a photo with images of her sister Christina Jefferds and Jefferds’ grand daughter Sanoah Violet Huestis next to a memorial for Sanoah at her home on March 20, 2024 in Arlington, Washington. Peterson wears her sister’s favorite color and one of her bangles. (Annie Barker / The Herald)
‘It just all came down’: An oral history of the Oso mudslide

Ten years later, The Daily Herald spoke with dozens of people — first responders, family, survivors — touched by the deadliest slide in U.S. history.

Victims of the Oso mudslide on March 22, 2014. (Courtesy photos)
Remembering the 43 lives lost in the Oso mudslide

The slide wiped out a neighborhood along Highway 530 in 2014. “Even though you feel like you’re alone in your grief, you’re really not.”

Director Lucia Schmit, right, and Deputy Director Dara Salmon inside the Snohomish County Department of Emergency Management on Friday, March 8, 2024, in Everett, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
How Oso slide changed local emergency response ‘on virtually every level’

“In a decade, we have just really, really advanced,” through hard-earned lessons applied to the pandemic, floods and opioids.

Ron and Gail Thompson at their home on Monday, March 4, 2024 in Oso, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
In shadow of scarred Oso hillside, mudslide’s wounds still feel fresh

Locals reflected on living with grief and finding meaning in the wake of a catastrophe “nothing like you can ever imagine” in 2014.

Imagine Children's Museum's incoming CEO, Elizabeth "Elee" Wood. (Photo provided by Imagine Children's Museum)
Imagine Children’s Museum will welcome new CEO in June

Nancy Johnson, who has led Imagine Children’s Museum in Everett for 25 years, will retire in June.

Kelli Littlejohn, who was 11 when her older sister Melissa Lee was murdered, speaks to a group of investigators and deputies to thank them for bringing closure to her family after over 30 years on Thursday, March 28, 2024, at Snohomish County Superior Court in Everett, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
‘She can rest in peace’: Jury convicts Bothell man in 1993 killing

Even after police arrested Alan Dean in 2020, it was unclear if he would stand trial. He was convicted Thursday in the murder of Melissa Lee, 15.

Ariel Garcia, 4, was last seen Wednesday morning in an apartment in the 4800 block of Vesper Dr. (Photo provided by Everett Police)
Everett police searching for missing child, 4

Ariel Garcia was last seen Wednesday at an apartment in the 4800 block of Vesper Drive. The child was missing under “suspicious circumstances.”

The rezoned property, seen here from the Hillside Vista luxury development, is surrounded on two sides by modern neighborhoods Monday, March 25, 2024, in Lake Stevens, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
Despite petition, Lake Stevens OKs rezone for new 96-home development

The change faced resistance from some residents, who worried about the effects of more density in the neighborhood.

Rep. Suzan DelBene, left, introduces Xichitl Torres Small, center, Undersecretary for Rural Development with the U.S. Department of Agriculture during a talk at Thomas Family Farms on Monday, April 3, 2023, in Snohomish, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Under new federal program, Washingtonians can file taxes for free

At a press conference Wednesday, U.S. Rep. Suzan DelBene called the Direct File program safe, easy and secure.

Former Snohomish County sheriff’s deputy Jeremie Zeller appears in court for sentencing on multiple counts of misdemeanor theft Wednesday, March 27, 2024, at Snohomish County Superior Court in Everett, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
Ex-sheriff’s deputy sentenced to 1 week of jail time for hardware theft

Jeremie Zeller, 47, stole merchandise from Home Depot in south Everett, where he worked overtime as a security guard.

Everett
11 months later, Lake Stevens man charged in fatal Casino Road shooting

Malik Fulson is accused of shooting Joseph Haderlie to death in the parking lot at the Crystal Springs Apartments last April.

Support local journalism

If you value local news, make a gift now to support the trusted journalism you get in The Daily Herald. Donations processed in this system are not tax deductible.