ScienceDaily reports:
Titan, Saturn's largest moon, is among the most Earthlike places in the solar system. As the Cassini-Huygens spacecraft examines Titan, its discoveries bring new mysteries. One of these is that the seemingly wind-created sand dunes spotted near the moon's equator point one direction, but the near-surface winds point another direction. Astronomers may have solved this mystery.
...Here's the problem: Climate simulations indicate that Titan's near-surface winds -- like Earth's trade winds -- blow toward the west. So why do the surface dunes, reaching a hundred yards high and many miles long, point to the east?
...Violent methane storms high in Titan's dense atmosphere, where winds do blow toward the east, might be the answer, according to new research by University of Washington astronomer Benjamin Charnay and co-authors in a paper published today in the journal Nature Geoscience. Using computer models, Charnay, a UW post-doctoral researcher, and co-authors hypothesize that the attitude of Titan's sand dunes results from rare methane storms that produce eastward gusts much stronger than the usual westward surface winds.
Will we one day discover Titanians wind-surfing the seas of methane?
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 15 2015, @03:04AM
Seriously, what have you been feeding that bitch?
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Wednesday April 15 2015, @03:31AM
Any surfer would need some serious clothes unless they want to become instantly cryo preserved.
(Score: 3, Informative) by meledian on Wednesday April 15 2015, @03:40AM
http://arxiv.org/abs/1504.03404 [arxiv.org] if anyone is interested in reading the source.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Wednesday April 15 2015, @03:55AM
Thanks, added to summary.
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(Score: 2) by c0lo on Wednesday April 15 2015, @04:00AM
Careful, though, they may stink of ammonia.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by aristarchus on Wednesday April 15 2015, @06:07AM
The fact that this is even a question is amazing all by itself. Who knew there were dunes on Titan? And now we not only know that, we are coming up with theories to explain the anomoly, which we hopefully will be able to text in a controlled experiement. (:::"Were you actually there? Did you see it with your own eyes? What? No? Then obviously titanian dunes and Evolution are false, and Titan is only slightly less than six thousand years old. End religious idiocy. )
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Wednesday April 15 2015, @11:11AM
We're spoilt with modern astronomy, we really are. The guys who put in the hardest work 300 years ago, were never rewarded with much more than grainy blobs. At least they got the chance to put names to those blobs.
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 2) by mtrycz on Wednesday April 15 2015, @07:53AM
I get that expecially when I eat soylentils.
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(Score: 3, Funny) by LoRdTAW on Wednesday April 15 2015, @12:15PM
What the hell do methane storms on some lowly moon have to do with Arrakis?