Titan ... yet again

Similar to earth but colder, much much colder. :)

For years, scientists haven't been able to explain how these Earth-like landscapes — including sand dunes made of hydrocarbons — formed on Titan's surface. The Moon's sediments are theorized to be composed of solid organic compounds, which are more fragile than the silicate-based sediments found on Earth. That means they shouldn't be able to form such varied structures on the Moon's surface.

The Stanford team studied a type of calcium carbonate sediment called the ooids, which are found on Earth, in a bid to better understand how Titan's surface is so similar to Earth's. They found that it is likely down to wind, seasonal change, and sintering — the process of forming a solid mass of material through heat and pressure without that material melting.

"We hypothesized that sintering — which involves neighboring grains fusing together into one piece — could counterbalance abrasion when winds transport the grains," study lead Mathieu Lapôtre explained in Standord's statement.

Dragonfly awaits ...

This illustration shows NASA’s Dragonfly rotorcraft-lander approaching a site on Saturn’s exotic moon, Titan. Taking advantage of Titan’s dense atmosphere and low gravity, Dragonfly will explore dozens of locations across the icy world, sampling and measuring the compositions of Titan's organic surface materials to characterize the habitability of Titan’s environment and investigate the progression of prebiotic chemistry.Credits: NASA/JHU-APL