NASA captures, through a probe, “atypical” sand dunes on Mars

The US space agency, NASA, recently released images of an “atypical” formation on the surface of Mars. They are simply sand dunes that are roughly circular in shape. Below, understand the cause of these atypical conditions formations on Mars.

Almost perfectly circular formations on Mars

Although it is not uncommon to find news about Mars, there are certain heaps of sand of different sizes and shapes on the planet. The image, taken by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) in November 2022, last year, surprised scientists a lot because of its particularly different appearance than usual.

While these dunes may be somewhat asymmetrical, and not quite perfect, these ridges were found in an area around the dunes that was imperfect with some irregularities. It was located near the crater of the Utopia Planitia volcano, in the northern hemisphere of the planet.

Sand dunes on Mars

The variety of shapes and textures on Mars is a phenomenon that has always attracted the attention of scientists.

The dune image is part of a series of images from a project that tracks how the end of winter affects these formations on the planet.

According to Alfred MacEwen, a planetary geologist at the University of Arizona and part of the research, the steep regions at the southern edges of the circular dunes on Mars indicate that the ridges were formed by winds generally moving south at this time from Mars. year.

This region of dunes on Mars is just one of 60 places currently monitored by MRO and its HiRISE camera.

From collecting repeated observations of dunes on Mars over the course of a Martian year (which lasts 687 Earth days). You Scientists Planetary systems are able to monitor the speed of the winds that form these dunes.

In this way they discovered that the dunes advanced about a meter from the equator to the poles of the planet.

As for the difference in dune shapes and sizes, meteorological aspects of Mars were revealed: during the MRO examination of Lyot Crater on Mars in 2010, HiRISE images showed that the crater topography created a particular type of channel that directs the winds.