Oct. 15, 2007 Noted for its bizarre hydrocarbon lakes and frozen
methane clouds, Saturn's largest moon, Titan, also appears to
have widespread drizzles of methane, according to a team of
astronomers at the University of California, Berkeley. New near-
infrared images from Hawaii's W. M. Keck Observatory and Chile's
Very Large Telescope show for the first time a nearly global
cloud cover at high elevations and, dreary as it may seem, a
widespread and persistent morning drizzle of methane over the
western foothills of Titan's major continent, Xanadu. In most of
the Keck and VLT images, liquid methane clouds and drizzle
appear at the morning edge of Titan, the arc of the moon that
has just rotated into the light of the sun. "Titan's topography
could be causing this drizzle," said Imke de Pater, UC Berkeley
professor of astronomy. "The rain could be caused by processes
similar to those on Earth: Moisture laden clouds pushed upslope
by winds condense to form a coastal rain." Lead author Mate
Adamkovics, a UC Berkel