Scientists spot massive methane rainstorm over Titan

[n2doc]

In this 2007 file photo, bright mid-latitude clouds near the bottom of this view hint at the ongoing cycling of methane on Titan.
COURTESY OF JPL/NASA/ FILE

Scientists spot massive methane rainstorm over Titan
A rare storm system over Titan's tropics help explain the region's unique liquid-carved landscape.

By Peter N. Spotts | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
from the August 12, 2009 edition

Worried about nasty tropical weather? Be glad you're not on Saturn's moon Titan.

Astronomers have discovered a storm system on Titan the size of India. It popped up in April 2008 in the moon's tropics, a latitude belt not known for cloudiness.

The storm, reported in the latest edition of the journal Nature, is another "a-ha" moment as scientists try to figure out how Titan's bizarre atmosphere works and the forces responsible for sculpting the moon's surface.

"These types of dramatic global weather events on Titan are rare and only last a few weeks," notes Henry Roe, an astronomer at the Lowell Observatory in Arizona and member of the team reporting the results.

The events suggested an atmosphere whose storm systems can significantly disturb Titan's equivalent of Earth's jet streams, triggering cloudiness elsewhere. It also helps explain why the surface in the tropics appears heavily sculpted by liquids despite the general dearth of clouds, the team suggests.
more:
http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/0812/p02s09-usgn.html

[Political Heretic]

1. Very interesting - I'm glad some people post astronomy news here

I like it.

[Orsino]

2. Titan's "tropics"...

...where it rains liquid methane. :rofl:

[Deep13]

3. A whole moon that smells like farts.

One big Dutch oven.

[Towlie]

5. No, methane is odorless.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methane

[formercia]

4. Big Oil is already working on it. n/t