Our new study, published today in Nature Astronomy, shows how some unlikely candidates – namely sand dunes – can provide insight into what weather and conditions you might experience if you were standing on a far-off planetary body.
The idea was to use the mere presence of sand dunes to understand what conditions exist on a world’s surface.
There must also be winds fast enough to make those grains hop across the ground – but not fast enough to carry them high into the atmosphere?
So far, the direct measurement of winds and sediment has only been possible on Earth and Mars?
However, we have observed wind-blown sediment features on multiple other bodies (and even comets) by satellite.
Our work focused on Venus, Earth, Mars, Titan, Triton (Neptune’s largest moon) and Pluto.
Why do we see such prolific sand and dust activity on Mars, despite measuring winds that seem too weak to sustain it.
Our study offers predictions for the winds required to move sediment on these bodies, and how easily that sediment would break apart in those winds.
Studies before ours have looked at either the wind speed threshold required to move sand, or the strength of various sediment particles.
Our work combined these together – looking at how easily particles could break apart in sand-transporting weather on these bodies.
For example, we know Titan’s equator has sand dunes – but we aren’t sure of what sediment encircles the equator.
Our results for Mars suggest more dust is generated from wind-blown sand transport on Mars than on Earth.
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