Here on Earth we often talk about planetary analogues. These are areas where the landscape here on our planet is geological similar to other worlds. There are regions in the Atacama desert, for instance, that are very similar to Mars.
Today, as researchers look back at Cassini data of Saturn’s moon Titan, researchers can imagine Earth analogue landscapes, where methane/ethane seas erode away their their shores in much the same way water waves here erode shorelines on Earth.
In a new paper in Science Advances researchers led by Rose Palermo use simulations to demonstrate that the shorelines on Titan are consistent with wave driven erosion. As team member Taylor Perron points out, “If we could stand at the edge of one of Titan’s seas, we might see waves of liquid methane and ethane lapping on the shore and crashing on the coasts during storms. And they would be capable of eroding the material that the coast is made of.”
This research isn’t definitive: other forces could be at play shaping Titan’s beaches. We won’t know until we are able to go back. Luckily, the Dragonfly mission looks to launch in 2028 and arrive at Titan in 2034 with robotic rotorcraft that will explore Titan’s surface.