Titan’s methane weather mirrors Earth’s cycle on a world of ice and hydrocarbons
Titan, Saturn’s largest moon, hosts an Earthlike hydrological cycle driven by liquid methane: evaporation, cloud formation, rain, river channels, and methane/ethane seas; its bedrock is water ice, far colder and harder than Earth’s, with a possible methane‑clathrate lid beneath. Observations from Huygens and Cassini reveal vast lake systems like Kraken Mare and complex weather patterns, showing a familiar sequence of evaporation–condensation–precipitation–runoff in an alien environment.