NASA’s years-long dream comes true as Webb telescope peers into Saturn’s moon Titan

Scientists have waited for years to study atmosphere of Titan and ir dream has now come true thanks to James Webb Space Telescope. Titan is Saturn’s largest Moon and is also only planetary body or than Earth that has rivers, lakes, and seas. se lakes and rivers, however, do not have water but what flows in m inste are hydrocarbons including methane and ethane. 

In dition to this, Titan has an atmosphere filled with a thick haze that obscures visible light reflecting off surface, and that is where Webb comes in. NASA has now used Webb’s infrared capabilities to study Titan’s atmosphere, including its wear patterns and gaseous composition, and also see through haze to study bright and dark patches on its surface. Titan holds immense significance among astronomers because y believe its atmosphere can tell a lot about Moon’s past and even future. 

Peering into Titan

Using Webb telescope’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam), scientists discovered a large cloud in Titan’s norrn hemisphere and soon confirmed presence of a second one. Astronomers say clouds validate long-held predictions from computer models about Titan’s climate, that y would form reily in mid-norrn hemisphere during its late summertime when sun heats surface.

[Evolution of clouds on Titan over 30 hours between Nov. 4 and Nov. 6, 2022, as seen by Webb NIRCam (left) and Keck NIRC-2 (right); Image: NASA]

team of astronomers is being led by Conor Nixon from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Centre who wrote to his team members, "re appears to be a large cloud, we believe over norrn polar region near Kraken Mare", in a mail. After spotting clouds in Titan's atmosphere, astronomers n used  Keck Observatory in Hawai'i to compare evolution of clouds in two days.

In images above (which are blurry due to Titan's dense atmosphere), NASA explained, "Cloud A appears to be rotating into view while Cloud B appears to be eir dissipating or moving behind Titan’s limb (around toward hemisphere facing away from us)". Currently, team is carrying out follow-up studies using Webb's Near-Infrared Spectrograph (NIRSpec) that is collecting spectra to gain access to wavelengths that do not reach ground-based telescopes.

Once y get Titan's data from NIRCam and NIRSpec and Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI), anor instrument of Webb, in May or June of 2023, scientists will be able to learn more about  composition of Titan’s lower atmosphere and surface and  bright feature seen over south pole.