Seasonal winds create 100 meter high dunes on Saturn's moon, Titan.
NASA's Cassini spacecraft obtained the first images of dunes on Titan in 2005. The dunes' orientation suggested the sands -- and therefore the winds -- were moving from west to east, the opposite of what was predicted based on the moon's rotation.
Tetsuya Tokano explained the paradox - seasonal changes appear to reverse wind patterns on Titan for a short period.
Gusts, which occur intermittently for perhaps two years, sweep west to east and are so strong they do a better job of transporting sand than the usual east-to-west surface winds.
The dunes track across the vast sand seas of Titan only in latitudes within 30 degrees of the equator. They are about a kilometer (half a mile) wide and tens to hundreds of kilometers (miles) long. They can rise more than 100 meters (300 feet) high. The sands that make up the dunes appear to be made of organic, hydrocarbon particles.
Read factlets by:
RSS feed
Email feed
