Webb Spies Rain Clouds, New Molecule on Titan

  • Released Wednesday, May 14, 2025
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NASA’s Webb Telescope has discovered a new molecule in Titan’s atmosphere – one that may have implications for the future of this surprisingly Earthlike world.

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Universal Production Music: “Barfuß Durch Die Stadt” by Edgar Möller [GEMA] and Lucia Wilke [GEMA]; “Into the Void” by Gage Boozan [ASCAP]; “Pulse of Progress” by Emma Zarobyan [SOCAN]; “Playing With The Narrative” by Cathleen Flynn [ASCAP] and Micah Barnes [BMI]; “Back From The Brink” by Daniel Gunnar Louis Trachtenberg [PRS]

Watch this video on the James Webb Space Telescope YouTube channel.

Of all the alien worlds in our solar system, one in particular resembles our home planet. Titan, the largest moon of Saturn, is the only other place we know of where you could walk along the seashore or stand in the rain. However, Titan’s exotic seas and its oily raindrops are not made of water, but of the natural gases methane and ethane, super-chilled into liquid form. Now, NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has revealed a crucial, missing step in how ethane is formed – and its discovery could tell us about the future of Titan’s atmosphere.

VERTICAL VIDEO – Narrated video about the discovery of rain clouds and methyl radicals on Titan, formatted for smartphone viewing.

Watch this video on NASA Goddard’s YouTube Shorts and Instagram Reels.

For More Information

See Webb’s Titan Forecast: Partly Cloudy With Occasional Methane Showers

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NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio

This page was originally published on Wednesday, May 14, 2025.
This page was last updated on Tuesday, May 13, 2025 at 7:37 PM EDT.

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