"Dunes of Titan" Topic

"Data from NASA's Cassini spacecraft show that the sizes and patterns of dunes on Saturn's moon Titan vary as a function of altitude and latitude. The dunes in areas that are more elevated or are higher in latitude, such as in the Fensal region pictured at bottom left, tend to be thinner and more widely separated, with gaps that have a thinner covering of sand. Dunes in the Belet region, pictured at top left, are at a lower altitude and latitude. The dunes in Belet are wider, with thicker blankets of sand between them. The Kalahari dunes in South Africa and Namibia, located in a region with limited sediment available and pictured at bottom right, show effects similar to the Fensal dunes. The Belet dunes on Titan resemble Earth's Oman dunes in Yemen and Saudi Arabia, where there is abundant sediment available. The Oman dunes are shown at top right.

The altitude effect suggests that the "sand" (likely composed of hydrocarbons) needed to build the dunes is mostly in the lowlands of Titan. Saturn's elliptical orbit may explain why dunes tend to be thinner, more widely separated and less sand-covered in the areas in between dunes as one moves northward. Summers in the southern hemisphere are shorter and warmer than in the northern hemisphere, possibly leaving the soil in the south less moist because northern areas experience more evaporation and condensation. When soil is moist, it is more difficult to move sand particles because they are sticky and heavier. As a result, it is more difficult to build dunes…"
Full article here
link

Hope you enjoy!.

Amicalement
Armand

PS. Interesting for your terrain and scenic of SF.

Amazing. But I would really like to have some bible data like they did with Viking way back in the 20th Century.

Titan is somewhere around 790,100,000 miles from Earth.

Mars is around 35,000,000 miles from Earth closest.

The Viking Landers went to Mars in 1976 and took enough data that other missions are, in my humble opinion, largely extraneous when the Viking "Bible" report (I have a copy) is considered. The Vikings were equipped with cameras that took things like these:

And that is a poor selection.

The question I put to you is why is the data from Titan so pathetic and the photos so impossibly bad?

Who decided to send a probe over 20 times further out at a cost of 3.3 billion and NOT equip it with a camera that actually does something?

Why is NASA so closed about releasing data from the Cassini/Huygens mission? Where is the bible for this mission?

Who knows my friend… who knows?
At least, we have some images.

Amicalement
Armand