Even though there are eight official planets in the solar system, NASA focuses on Mars and other big cosmic objects, like Jupiter and Saturn. Many discoveries have been made just by observing the planets and not sending rovers there, especially because they wouldn’t last long. While Jupiter has a thin atmosphere, anything trying to enter the planet would suffer from the extreme heat and pressure. Saturn, on the other hand, has no solid surface for the rovers to land on, and would melt the rovers or any spacecraft that enters the planet.
NASA studies other planets in the solar system, not only Mars
Just like the Earth, almost every planet in the solar system has its own natural satellites in orbit. Their moons do not affect planets like ours, influencing the tides, because there is no ocean outside of Earth, and many are just there because the gravitational field from the cosmic object locked them in orbit during the solar nebula, an event that changed everything inside our solar system.
Scientists cannot explore other planets physically due to limitations on the breathable oxygen in the universe, the distance, and limitations on the spaceship propulsion technology to prevent us from leaving the Earth. On the other side, NASA space telescopes like the Chandra X-Ray, Spitzer, and the James Webb are doing the job remotely, making discoveries regularly.
NASA spots clouds on one of the moons of Saturn
NASA astronomers have recently found something new on Titan, Saturn’s largest moon. Using telescopes like the Keck Observatory in Hawaii and the James Webb in space, they spotted cloud convection happening in Titan’s Northern Hemisphere — and it’s the first time this has been seen there.
Titan is unique in the solar system. It has a thick, yellowish atmosphere made mostly of nitrogen, similar to Earth. It also experiences weather, including clouds and rain, though the rain is made of methane instead of water. But instead of water, Titan’s weather runs on methane, which is a gas that can turn into liquid in the cold.
NASA made observations in late 2022 and mid-2023. During this time, they noticed clouds in Titan’s north, and those clouds seemed to be moving up, reaching higher parts of the atmosphere. Cloud convection had already been seen in Titan’s south before, but this was the first time it was noticed up north. That matters because most of Titan’s lakes and seas are in the Northern Hemisphere, and the methane that evaporates from them might help form these clouds.
Titan is bigger than Earth
Titan’s atmosphere is also different from ours in size. While Earth’s lower layer (called the troposphere) goes up to around 12 kilometers, Titan’s reaches 45 kilometers, since its gravity is weaker. Using different infrared filters, scientists were able to check the depth of the clouds and noticed they rose to higher altitudes over a few days. They did not catch any rain falling, but the movement itself tells a lot about the weather up there.
This NASA research was part of a program called The Twilight Zone, which lets scientists observe bright objects in the sky when it’s too bright for regular observations. Titan appears to be one of the most interesting places to study when it comes to the search for organic life. That’s because it has complex organic molecules — the same kind of carbon-based molecules that life on Earth is made of. By studying how these molecules form and act on Titan, scientists hope to learn more about how life may have started on Earth.