Sand Dunes Throughout the Solar SystemNational Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC
Free, Tickets Required
4:30 p.m. Discovery Station (in front of Welcome Center) 5:45p.m. Planetarium presentation 6:45 p.m. Telescope observing at Public Observatory, weather permitting
Sand is abundant on many planetary surfaces. If winds are strong enough to set the sand in motion, impressive dunes are generated. Jim Zimbelman will highlight sand dunes found throughout the solar system.
The Smithsonian’s Stars Lecture Series is made possible by a grant from NASA.
This view from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shows two classes of aeolian bedforms within Proctor Crater. The relatively bright, small ridges are ripples. From their study on Earth, and close-up examination by the MER rovers (roving elsewhere on Mars), we know that ripples are composed of fine sand (less than 200 microns in diameter) or fine sand coated with coarser sand and granules. The larger, darker bedforms are dunes composed of sand, most likely of fine size.
How to attend
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