NASA’s photos reveal these weird circular dunes on Mars

Scientists at the University of Arizona have recently shared photos of unusual circular dunes on Mars. While sand dunes aren’t an unordinary occurrence, those that look like almost perfect circles certainly are something you don’t see every day.

[Related reading: NASA’s Curiosity rover captures sun rays on Mars for the first time ever]

The scientists took these photos on November 22, 2022 using the High-Resolution Imaging Experiment (HiRise) camera. In the statement, they explain that the dunes are still slightly asymmetrical, even though they appear to be perfectly circular at first sight. There are steep slip faces on the south ends, which indicates that “sand generally moves to the south, but the winds may be variable.” For scale, each pixel of the second image below covers 25 cm (10 in) of the Red Planet’s surface.

 

“This is part of a series of images to monitor how frost disappears in the late winter,” the statement reads, and this observation appears to be free of frost. But there’s another image taken earlier, showing what the circular dunes looked like when their surface was covered by frost.

Frost or no frost, these weird circular dunes on Mars look absolutely incredible. They tell astronomers more about the Martian atmosphere, but for us who just like space photography – they’re a true visual treat.

[via Space.com]