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: 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?