Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Titan-ic dunes

Here’s an artist rendering of the majestic dunes that NASA’s Cassini probe found:

Saturn's moons

That’s one beautiful image.  Here’s more from the article:

Nasa's Cassini probe has found that the dunes on the surface of Saturn's moon Titan vary in shape just like dunes on Earth - and even look similar to deserts on our planet.

The similarities end there, of course - not only are the dunes on Titan 300 feet high and up to a mile wide, they're made of frozen hydrocarbons - chemicals found in crude oil - rather than sand.

There are four million square miles of dunes on Titan, an area the size of the United States. Their formations could be key to understanding the clouded moon's mysterious weather patterns.

No comments: