{"paper":{"title":"Where does Titan Sand Come From: Insight from Mechanical Properties of Titan Sand Candidates","license":"http://arxiv.org/licenses/nonexclusive-distrib/1.0/","headline":"","cross_cats":[],"primary_cat":"astro-ph.EP","authors_text":"Bryan Crawford, Chao He, Patricia McGuiggan, Sarah M. H\\\"orst, Xinting Yu","submitted_at":"2018-06-21T03:26:43Z","abstract_excerpt":"Extensive equatorial linear dunes exist on Titan, but the origin of the sand, which appears to be organic, is unknown. We used nanoindentation to study the mechanical properties of a few Titan sand candidates, several natural sands on Earth, and common materials used in the Titan Wind Tunnel, to understand the mobility of Titan sand. We measured the elastic modulus (E), hardness (H), and fracture toughness (Kc) of these materials. Tholin's elastic modulus (10.4+/-0.5 GPa) and hardness (0.53+/-0.03 GPa) are both an order of magnitude smaller than silicate sand, and is also smaller than the mech"},"claims":{"count":0,"items":[],"snapshot_sha256":"258153158e38e3291e3d48162225fcdb2d5a3ed65a07baac614ab91432fd4f57"},"source":{"id":"1806.08056","kind":"arxiv","version":1},"verdict":{"id":null,"model_set":{},"created_at":null,"strongest_claim":"","one_line_summary":"","pipeline_version":null,"weakest_assumption":"","pith_extraction_headline":""},"references":{"count":0,"sample":[],"resolved_work":0,"snapshot_sha256":"258153158e38e3291e3d48162225fcdb2d5a3ed65a07baac614ab91432fd4f57","internal_anchors":0},"formal_canon":{"evidence_count":0,"snapshot_sha256":"258153158e38e3291e3d48162225fcdb2d5a3ed65a07baac614ab91432fd4f57"},"author_claims":{"count":0,"strong_count":0,"snapshot_sha256":"258153158e38e3291e3d48162225fcdb2d5a3ed65a07baac614ab91432fd4f57"},"builder_version":"pith-number-builder-2026-05-17-v1"}