When we think of Mars, we often imagine the cold and unchanging landscapes. But this is far from the truth. Mars is actually a planet with an active weather system that literally falls asleep on the surface of the Red Planet.
Many sandy dune materials were sandwiched by Martian craters. For example, this happened with the crater of Noachi Terre, located to the west of the large-scale basin of Hellas. HiRISE camera on the MRO was able to capture this review on December 28, 2009. These are linear dunes associated with changing wind patterns. Surprisingly, they are all extremely similar, including the reddish line on the slopes. Between them are large boulders.
The High-Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE), mounted onboard the NASA MarsReconnaissanceOrbiter spacecraft, is closely watching the mysterious fields of the dunes on the surface of Mars. These fields cover vast territories and through constant monitoring one can notice their “movement” and “redistribution”. Monitoring these dunes is an important tool for astronomers in an attempt to understand weather patterns on Mars.
Blue Sand Dunes of Mars
An increase in the photographs of HiRISE, which made a portrait of the dunes of the Neil Pater plain, known for its undulating dunes, can be seen clear signs of the movement of dunes and tiny landslides. Although these changes are quite small after 16 months of monitoring, the process of forming new dunes does not stop. Probably the most obvious changes are the change of dune forms, which cover the Martian dunes. During the 16 months of observations, many of the dunes smoothed out, while some mixed with the neighboring ones. All these phenomena are clear signs that the weak winds on Mars have a huge effect on the fine grains of the material known as the “regolith” of which the Martian dunes are made.
