Saturn’s moon Titan is one of the most intriguing bodies in our solar system. Its dense atmosphere and lakes of liquid methane make it both beautiful and bizarre, as well as a tantalizing target for those seeking extraterrestrial life. To me, though, the most amazing thing (so far) has been the revelation that is Titan’s meteorology. There’s something extraordinary about imagining liquid methane falling as rain on another world—it’s so similar to our experience, yet so very different. Earth has a familiar hydrologic cycle; Titan has an alien methane cycle.
In a letter published in Nature, researchers describe a model that successfully simulates some key aspects of Titan’s weather. The model offers possible explanations for some of the moon's quirky features that have long been puzzling.
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