spacetoday.net: Titan "seas" made of sand

Titan "seas" made of sand

Posted: Fri, May 5, 2006, 12:17 PM ET (1617 GMT)
Titan sand dunes seen by Cassini radar (JPL/U. Ariz.)

Dark areas on the surface of Saturn's moon Titan previously thought to be liquid hydrocarbon oceans are in fact vast areas of sand dunes, scientists report. In a paper published in Friday's issue of the journal Science, researchers using radar data from the Cassini spacecraft concluded that the dark areas previous spotted in the moon's equatorial regions are seas of sand dunes similar to those found in Arabia or Namibia. The dunes are created by tidal-driven winds, rather than solar energy-driven winds. Unlike the Earth, the sands are not thought to be made of grains of silicates but instead some mixture of organic materials and/or water ice grains.