[X] My Assistant

[ngunn]

From 'Science Daily':

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/...90825163726.htm

[ngunn]

I always enjoy a chemistry lesson here, even if I don't have the background to benefit fully from it. So thanks, and keep it coming. I had been wondering if stonger hydrogen bonding at low temperature might contribute to the cohesiveness of Titan's dune material. But then I thought: the hydrogen bonds are not actually any stronger, it's just that thermal agitation is weaker. What if the force opposing the cohesion is not thermal agitation but mechanical agitation by the wind? Surely the hydrogen bonds would have no special advantage against this foe?

All the same, slightly sticky dune sands on Titan seem highly plausible. It will be interesting to see whether the scientific consensus accepts cohesion as a new and distinct explanation for linear dunes. I don't have access to the full text of the paper but from the abstract it seems that some of the evidence is geomorphological/anecdotal rather than physics and chemistry based.