astronomy

List of extraterrestrial dune fields

List of extraterrestrial dune fields is a astronomy topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand List of extraterrestrial dune fields rather than just read about it. In short: This is a list of dune fields not on Earth which have been given official names by the International Astronomical Union. Dune fields are named according to the IAU's rules of planetary nomenclature.

Key takeaways

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Reference excerpt

This is a list of dune fields not on Earth which have been given official names by the International Astronomical Union. Dune fields are named according to the IAU's rules of planetary nomenclature. The relevant descriptor term is undae. As of now, the only two Solar System planets, besides Earth, with named dune fields are Venus and Mars. Dune fields have also been discovered on Saturn's moon Titan, Pluto and comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko.

Venus There are three officially named dune fields on Venus. They are named after desert goddesses, as per the IAU's rules. They are listed below.

Al-Uzza Undae 67.7N, 90.5E – named after Al-Uzza, an Arabian desert goddess. Menat Undae 24.8S, 339.4E - named after the Egyptian Goddess Hathor who was sometimes called Menat. Ningal Undae 9.0N, 60.7E – named after Ningal, the wife of the Sumerian desert god Sin.

Mars

There are six officially named dune fields on Mars, which are named after nearby classical albedo features in accordance with the IAU's rules. Five of them lie between 75°N to 85°N, between Planum Boreum and Vastitas Borealis. These dune fields span over 200 degrees of longitude. The sixth, Ogygis Undae, lies on the southern hemisphere of Mars. They are listed below.

Abalos Undae Aspledon Undae Hyperboreae Undae Ogygis Undae Olympia Undae Siton Undae

Unofficial field names

Bagnold dune field, Gale crater. This dune field was explored by Curiosity between initially between mission Sols ~1174–1248, where the rover investigated High dune, and Namib dune. Three orders of bedform were identified: wind ripple, large ripple (or wind drag ripple) and dune. Sand grains in this section of the dune field had a modal grain size of 120 μm Namib dune, Gale crater. This is a prominent feature that looks like the giant dunes of Africa’s Namib Desert. As part of the Mars Exploration Rover mission, a small dune field unofficially named El Dorado on the south side of Husband Hill in Gusev crater was investigated by the Spirit rover from sols 706 to 710. Analysis of El Dorado showed that it consists of black wind-blown sand which is "well-sorted, well-rounded and olivine rich.

The Hagal dune field is named after Frank Herbert's novel Dune and the fictional planet Hagal. The field is also known as the "Martian Morse Code" due to the similarity of the Dune shapes to Morse code dots and dashes. Nili Patera dune field

Titan There are five officially named dune fields on Titan, which are named after Greek gods, goddesses or personifications of wind. They are listed below:

Aura Undae Boreas Undae Eurus Undae Notus Undae Zephyrus Undae Literature also uses names of dark albedo features when referring to Titan's dune fields:

Aztlan Belet Fensal Senkyo Shangri-La

Pluto

Analysis of high resolution photos from New Horizons taken on 14 July 2015 of Pluto's Sputnik Planum region in 2018 has confirmed the presence of transverse dunes (perpendicular to the wind streaks) within the cellular nitrogen plains, spaced about 0.4 to 1 km apart, that are thought to be composed of 200–300 μm diameter particles of methane ice believed to be derived from the nearby Al-Idrisi Montes. These features are yet to be formally named.

References

A large portion of this article was sourced from the Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature, the official IAU database of planetary names.

Ralph Lorenz; James Zimbelman (2014). Dune Worlds: How Wind-blown Sand Shapes Planetary Landscapes. Springer. ISBN 978-3-540-89724-8.

External links Extraterrestrial Dunes

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with List of extraterrestrial dune fields

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what List of extraterrestrial dune fields claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In astronomy, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to List of extraterrestrial dune fields before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about List of extraterrestrial dune fields ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of List of extraterrestrial dune fields

In research: List of extraterrestrial dune fields appears in astronomy research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses List of extraterrestrial dune fields in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: List of extraterrestrial dune fields is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Extraterrestrial dunes, Surface features of Mars, Surface features of Venus, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for List of extraterrestrial dune fields outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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Frequently asked questions

What is List of extraterrestrial dune fields in simple terms?

This is a list of dune fields not on Earth which have been given official names by the International Astronomical Union. Dune fields are named according to the IAU's rules of planetary nomenclature.

Why does List of extraterrestrial dune fields matter?

Because it connects several astronomy ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study List of extraterrestrial dune fields?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on List of extraterrestrial dune fields.