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Of all the alien worlds 
in our solar system, one

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in particular resembles
our home planet: Titan.

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The largest moon of Saturn is the only other place we know of where

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you could walk along the seashore
or stand in the rain.

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However, Titan's exotic
seas and its oily raindrops
are not made of water,

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but of the natural gases
methane and ethane
superchilled into liquid form.

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Now, NASA's Webb
telescope has revealed

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a crucial missing step
in how ethane is formed,

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and its discovery could
tell us about the future
of Titan's atmosphere.

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Scientists used Webb's infrared camera to peer through
the haze that envelops

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Titan and spy methane rain clouds
forming in its summer hemisphere.

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Webb also detected

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methyl, a fragment from methane’s breakup, in the upper atmosphere.

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This confirms our suspicion
that methane is being
disintegrated, reforming

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into heavier molecules like ethane,
and raining back onto the surface.

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Titan's rain cycle helps to keep its poles covered in lakes and seas,

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but over time, the loss of
methane could cause the
moon to slowly dry up.

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If the methane is not replenished
by outgassing

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from Titan's interior, then its
lakes and seas, its rain clouds,

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and even its haze could all disappear in the far future.

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So who knows?

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Perhaps one day our descendants
will walk along a dry, dusty

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seabed on Titan's surface,
look up and see Saturn
through a dark blue sky.