Quicksand Fans

Carl Sagan and ‘star-tar’

First of all, why is Pluto red? Scientists think it is colored by particles called tholins, or star-tar, created in the atmosphere when methane interacts with the sun’s ultraviolet light to form a mixture of complex hydrocarbons. As the haze particles clump and grow heavier, they fall out of the atmosphere and coat the planet’s surface.

Carl Sagan first called attention to tholins in the 1970s when he tried to create chemistry in his laboratory that might explain the red in the Great Red Spot of Jupiter, but they’re also found elsewhere in the solar system, most notably on Saturn’s moon Titan, where there might be dune fields of tholins.

Boggy Man wrote:There has been talk about a tarlike substance called tholins being present on Pluto, Saturn's moon Titan, and elsewhere.

From http://www.futurity.org/pluto-red-974022/ :

Carl Sagan and ‘star-tar’

First of all, why is Pluto red? Scientists think it is colored by particles called tholins, or star-tar, created in the atmosphere when methane interacts with the sun’s ultraviolet light to form a mixture of complex hydrocarbons. As the haze particles clump and grow heavier, they fall out of the atmosphere and coat the planet’s surface.

Carl Sagan first called attention to tholins in the 1970s when he tried to create chemistry in his laboratory that might explain the red in the Great Red Spot of Jupiter, but they’re also found elsewhere in the solar system, most notably on Saturn’s moon Titan, where there might be dune fields of tholins.

Imagine an astronaut landing on a planet, only to get stuck and sucked into the tar!