One of the top destinations to search for life in our solar system is the moon of Saturn, which will be visited by a NASA helicopter in 2027. It is a strange place, with a thick atmosphere, rivers and lakes on its surface, then an icy crust, and a possible ocean of liquid water beneath. According to new research, the alien world may have more in common with Earth than previously thought.
Computer models have been used to analyze how the dunes and plains might have formed. There are sand dunes between the rivers. In addition to being the only moon in the solar system known to have a substantial atmosphere, it has a seasonal liquid cycle that is comparable to Earth's water cycle. This cycle occurs with liquid methane and ethane instead of water.
dunes are formed from sand grains which are formed from hydrocarbons. Sand on Earth and Titan are formed from soft compounds which wear down into fine dust. How these compounds could form into grains that make dunes that have lasted for hundreds of thousands of years was an open question.
Grains collide with each other and with the surface as winds transport them. The growth mechanism that could counterbalance that and allow sand grains to maintain a stable size through time was missing.
The answer could be due to a process called sintering, in which a bunch of fine particles join together into a solid mass. This allows the grains to grow in size and is balanced out by the wear and tear of erosion which makes the grains smaller.
This can explain how Titan ended up with sand dunes around its equator, plains around the mid-latitudes, and a type of terrain called labyrinth terrain near the poles. The different terrains are formed by different amounts of wind, rain, and rivers. That makes for a seasonal system that is similar to Earth.
We have an active sedimentary cycle that can explain the latitudinal distribution of landscapes, just like it did on Earth.
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