"Tropical Storm Spotted on Saturn's Moon Titan"
Saturn's Moon Titan has a climate resembling that of Earth, but instead of a water cycle, Titan has a methane cycle. Clouds, rains and lakes all exist on Titan, but they are all made of methane. This is because the moon is so cold any water is frozen into rock-hard ice. Last summer, astronomers observed something very startling: a tropical storm.
This is not supposed to be there, according to the models that predicted that the equatorial region should be very dry and should not support cloud formation. While clouds of vaporized methane are not uncommon on Titan, though they have never before been observed in Titan's tropics. Scientists suspect the storm's trigger may have been some kind of geologic activity on the moon's surface, such as a geyser or new mountain range forming, or atmospheric effects.
This development simply furthers the fascination of Titan; the processes are nearly identical to Earth's, but with alien materials. As Saturn's 30-year-long orbit plays out a full rotation of seasons on the moon, scientists hope that by having telescopes trained on the moon and the every-six weekly view from NASA's Cassini spacecraft they will be able to learn a lot more.
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