The surface of Saturn's haze-shrouded moon Titan has long been proposed to have oceans or lakes, on the basis of the stability of liquid methane at the surface. Initial visible and radar imaging failed to find any evidence of an ocean, although abundant evidence was found that flowing liquids have existed on the surface. Here we provide definitive evidence for the presence of lakes on the surface of Titan, obtained during the Cassini Radar flyby of Titan on 22 July 2006 (T16). The radar imaging polewards of 70 degrees north shows more than 75 circular to irregular radar-dark patches, in a region where liquid methane and ethane are expected to be abundant and stable on the surface. The radar-dark patches are interpreted as lakes on the basis of their very low radar reflectivity and morphological similarities to lakes, including associated channels and location in topographic depressions. Some of the lakes do not completely fill the depressions in which they lie, and apparently dry depressions are present. We interpret this to indicate that lakes are present in a number of states, including partly dry and liquid-filled. These northern-hemisphere lakes constitute the strongest evidence yet that a condensable-liquid hydrological cycle is active in Titan's surface and atmosphere, in which the lakes are filled through rainfall and/or intersection with the subsurface 'liquid methane' table.

The most recent Cassini RADAR images of Titan show widespread regions (up to 1500 kilometers by 200 kilometers) of near-parallel radar-dark linear features that appear to be seas of longitudinal dunes similar to those seen in the Namib desert on Earth. The Ku-band (2.17-centimeter wavelength) images show ∼100-meter ridges consistent with duneforms and reveal flow interactions with underlying hills. The distribution and orientation of the dunes support a model of fluctuating surface winds of ∼0.5 meter per second resulting from the combination of an eastward flow with a variable tidal wind. The existence of dunes also requires geological processes that create sand-sized (100- to 300-micrometer) particulates and a lack of persistent equatorial surface liquids to act as sand traps.

The Juno microwave radiometer measured the thermal emission from Jupiter's atmosphere from the cloud tops at about 1 bar to as deep as a hundred bars of pressure during its first flyby over Jupiter (PJ1). The nadir brightness temperatures show that the Equatorial Zone is likely to be an ideal adiabat, which allows a determination of the deep ammonia abundance in the range 362−33+33 ppm. The combination of Markov chain Monte Carlo method and Tikhonov regularization is studied to invert Jupiter's global ammonia distribution assuming a prescribed temperature profile. The result shows (1) that ammonia is depleted globally down to 50–60 bars except within a few degrees of the equator, (2) the North Equatorial Belt is more depleted in ammonia than elsewhere, and (3) the ammonia concentration shows a slight inversion starting from about 7 bars to 2 bars. These results are robust regardless of the choice of water abundance.

Juno swoops around giant Jupiter Jupiter is the largest and most massive planet in our solar system. NASA's Juno spacecraft arrived at Jupiter on 4 July 2016 and made its first close pass on 27 August 2016. Bolton et al. present results from Juno's flight just above the cloud tops, including images of weather in the polar regions and measurements of the magnetic and gravitational fields. Juno also used microwaves to peer below the visible surface, spotting gas welling up from the deep interior. Connerney et al. measured Jupiter's aurorae and plasma environment, both as Juno approached the planet and during its first close orbit. Science , this issue p. 821 , p. 826

During the passage of Voyager 1 through the Saturn system, the infrared instrument acquired spectral and radiometric data on Saturn, the rings, and Titan and other satellites. Infrared spectra of Saturn indicate the presence of H(2), CH(4), NH(3), PH(3), C(2)H(2), C(2)H(6), and possibly C(3)H(4) and C(3)H(8). A hydrogen mole fraction of 0.94 is inferred with an uncertainty of a few percent, implying a depletion of helium in the atmosphere of Saturn relative to that of Jupiter. The atmospheric thermal structure of Saturn shows hemisphere asymmetries that are consistent with a response to the seasonally varying insolation. Extensive small-scale latitudinal structure is also observed. On Titan, positive identifications of infrared spectral features are made for CH(4), C(2)H(2), C(2)H(4), C(2)H(6), and HCN; tentative identifications are made for C(3)H(4) and C(3)H(8). The infrared continuum opacity on Titan appears to be quite small between 500 and 600 cm(-1), implying that the solid surface is a major contributor to the observed emission over this spectral range; between 500 and 200 cm(-1) theopacity increases with decreasing wave number, attaining an optical thickness in excess of 2 at 200 cm(-1). Temperatures near the 1-millibar level are independent of longitude and local time but show a decrease of approximately 20 K between the equator and north pole, which suggests a seasonally dependent cyclostrophic zonal flow in the stratosphere of approximately 100 meters per second. Measurements of the C ring of Saturn yield a temperature of 85 +/- 1 K and an infrared optical depth of 0.09 +/- 0.01. Radiometer observations of sunlight transmitted through the ring system indicate an optical depth of 10(-1.3 +/-0.3) for the Cassini division. A phase integral of 1.02 +/- 0.06 is inferred for Rhea, which agrees with values for other icy bodies in the solar system. Rhea eclipse observations indicate the presence of surface materials with both high and low thermal inertias, the former most likely a blocky component and the latter a frost.

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The Cassini Titan Radar Mapper imaged about 1% of Titan's surface at a resolution of ∼0.5 kilometer, and larger areas of the globe in lower resolution modes. The images reveal a complex surface, with areas of low relief and a variety of geologic features suggestive of dome-like volcanic constructs, flows, and sinuous channels. The surface appears to be young, with few impact craters. Scattering and dielectric properties are consistent with porous ice or organics. Dark patches in the radar images show high brightness temperatures and high emissivity and are consistent with frozen hydrocarbons.

Oxygen is the most common element after hydrogen and helium in Jupiter's atmosphere, and may have been the primary condensable (as water ice) in the protoplanetary disk. Prior to the Juno mission, in situ measurements of Jupiter's water abundance were obtained from the Galileo Probe, which dropped into a meteorologically anomalous site. The findings of the Galileo Probe were inconclusive because the concentration of water was still increasing when the probe died. Here, we initially report on the water abundance in the equatorial region, from 0 to 4 degrees north latitude, based on 1.25 to 22 GHz data from Juno Microwave radiometer probing approximately 0.7 to 30 bars pressure. Because Juno discovered the deep atmosphere to be surprisingly variable as a function of latitude, it remains to confirm whether the equatorial abundance represents Jupiter's global water abundance. The water abundance at the equatorial region is inferred to be. !. %. × ppm, or. !. %. times the protosolar oxygen elemental ratio to H (1 uncertainties). If reflective of the global water abundance, the result suggests that the planetesimals formed Jupiter are unlikely to be water-rich clathrate hydrates. From thermodynamic calculations 1 , three types of cloud layers in the Jovian atmosphere are thought to exist: an ammonia ice cloud, an ammonium hydrosulfide ice cloud 2,3 , and a water ice and droplet cloud, formed approximately at 0.7 bars, 2.2 bars, and 5 bars, respectively, assuming solar abundances. The locations of these clouds may vary due to the local abundance, meteorology and specific model parameters. Condensation and evaporation of water contribute to weather on giant planets because water is the most abundant species apart from hydrogen and helium and the latent heat flux in convective storms is comparable to the solar and internal heat fluxes 4,5. Consequently, the thermal state of the atmosphere is affected by the amount of water vapor in the atmosphere. Prior to the Juno mission, in situ measurements of Jupiter's atmospheric composition below the clouds were obtained from the Galileo Probe 6 , which dropped into a meteorologically anomalous site (6.57° N planetocentric latitude , 4.46° W longitude) 7 , known as a 5 "hot spot" near the boundary between the visibly-bright Equatorial Zone (EZ) and the dark North Equatorial Belt (NEB) 8. The findings of the Galileo Probe were baffling, for they showed that the levels where ammonia and hydrogen sulfide become uniformly