(NASA, ESA, CSA, A. Pagan (STScI). Science: Webb Titan GTO Team. https://bit.ly/3iDbhsc)
Astronomers have used the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) to observe Titan, one of the most important moons of Saturn.
The telescope was able to see seas and dune fields on the surface of the satellite, as well as large clouds in its atmosphere.
Titan is a unique body in the solar system, it is the only moon with a dense atmosphere and the second body besides the Earth, which has lakes and seas.
However, the basis of the hydrological cycle on Titan is not water, but liquid hydrocarbons: methane and ethane.
Research on Titan is mainly carried out with the help of spacecraft and probes, since the atmosphere is opaque in the optical range.
In order to see the surface of Titan, it is necessary to use radar or go to the infrared range.
Currently, there are no active devices in the Saturn system because Cassini completed its work in 2017.
Therefore, scientists had high hopes that the new James Webb telescope could observe Titan, as it is one of the observation targets.
THE OBSERVATION
A team of planetary scientists from the Goddard Space Flight Center, who make up the James Webb Titan Working Group, presented the results of the first observations of Titan.
The team led by Conor Nixon, used the NIRCam camera and the NIRSpec near-infrared spectrograph from the JWST.
In addition to the James Webb, the ground-based Keck telescope and its NIRC-2 camera participated in the observations.
In the resulting images, scientists saw the Kraken Sea (the largest sea of Titan), the region of dark sand dunes of Beleth and the bright region of Adiri.
In addition, two large clouds were observed in the northern hemisphere of the satellite:
- Cloud A has shifted during the observation period
- Cloud B may have been dissipating or moving out of view.
The presence of clouds confirms the predictions of computer models about the climate of the frigid moon.
(NASA, ESA, CSA, W. M. Keck Observatory, STScI, Webb Titan GTO Team https://bit.ly/3urgAxv)
Sources:
- NASA: https://blogs.nasa.gov/webb/2022/12/01/webb-keck-telescopes-team-up-to-track-clouds-on-saturns-moon-titan/
- Astronomy: https://astronomy.com/news/2022/12/james-webb-telescope-turns-gaze-to-saturns-strange-moon-titan
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