Astronomy and Carl Sagan Quotes


The screaming winds could be carrying the dust raised from the dunes across great distances, contributing to the global cycle of organic dust on Titan. These would result in effects similar to those that occur on both Earth and Mars. Although the provisional designation of 2005 FY9 was given to Makemake when its discovery was made public, before that Dr. Brown's team had used the playful codename "Easter Bunny" for this small world, because of its discovery shortly after Easter. Organic dust forms when organic molecules, resulting from the interaction of sunlight with methane, grow large enough to tumble down to the surface of Titan. Dr. Roderiguez continued to explain that, even though this is the first-ever observation of a dust storm on Titan, the discovery is not especially surprising.