Our new studies can
provide insight into what weather and conditions you might experience if you were standing on a far-off planetary body.
In a scientific research,
the idea was to use the mere presence of sand dunes to understand what conditions exist on a world's surface.
For dunes to even exist,
there are criteria that must be satisfied. First is a supply of erodible but durable grains.
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.
Researchers also found
wind speeds would have to be excessively fast on Pluto to transport either methane or nitrogen ice
These are dune-like
landforms made from the sublimation of material, instead of sediment erosion