Mystery Sand on Saturn Moon - Titan

Mystery Sand on Saturn Moon
http://sciencenow.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/2006/504/2

4 May 2006

Sand dunes are not unique to planet Earth: Astronomers have observed
them on Mars and Venus. Now Titan, the largest moon of Saturn, may be
included in this list, as new radar images of its surface reveal
100-kilometer-long dark stripes that resemble the rows of tall dunes
seen in southwest Africa and Saudi Arabia. But what exactly makes up
Titan sand, no one is entirely sure.

Sand dunes can reveal a lot about a region's climate and geology, as
they require both erosion to break rocks into sand and wind to blow the
sand into piles. Not too long ago, planetary scientists thought Titan
lacked both of these ingredients. But as the European probe Huygens
descended onto Titan's surface in January 2005 (ScienceNOW, 21 January
2005), its instruments detected winds that appear to be generated not
by sunlight as here on Earth but by the strong gravitational pull from
nearby Saturn. Huygens' cameras also caught glimpses of channels carved
into the ice surface presumably by liquid methane, just as rock is
eroded by water on Earth.

See: http://sciencenow.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/2006/504/2
.

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