News Planetary Science

Titan’s dark dunes could be made from comets

The origin of the rippling sands has long been a mystery

Infrared composite image of Titan, Saturn's largest moon. The moon appears blue-green in the image with dark splotches across its surface.

Titan’s dunes (dark regions) can be observed in this infrared composite of the largest of Saturn’s moons, which was taken in 2015 by NASA’s now-defunct Cassini spacecraft.

NASA

By Nikk Ogasa

THE WOODLANDS, TEXAS — The dark dunes of Titan, Saturn’s largest moon, could have fallen from space.

More than enough cometary material may have struck Titan to have formed its vast dune fields, planetary scientist William Bottke reported March 12 at the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference.