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The slight asymmetry in the sand dunes shows their steep sides are orientated towards the south. The University of Arizona, which operates the High-Resolution Imaging Experiment (HiRise) camera used to take the image, pointed out in a statement(opens in new tab) that this indicates sands are blown southwards, though the Martian winds may be variable. The image was taken on November 22, 2022, at a latitude of 42.505 degrees and a longitude of 67.076 degrees. It comes as part of a series of pictures taken by the HiRise camera that orbits Mars on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) spacecraft. The...

Our story today begins millennia ago, as the retreating glaciers (formed during the Ice Age) carved out the Great Lakes basin (during the earth’s last global warming period caused by carbon emissions). Along with the magnificently clear waters of the Great Lakes this global warming phenomenon left huge deposits of quartz sand behind that over time gathered in massive sand dunes that are still here today, although they are ever shifting and changing. The largest of these dunes reside in Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore…where they rise 450 feet above the lakeOverlook at Pierce Stocking 9 Mile marker, Sleeping Bear...

Researchers working with Rosetta have found that the comet harbors organic compounds, carbon-based molecules that are sometimes known as the chemical building blocks of life. This marks the first time organic molecules have been detected on the surface of a comet's nucleus, according to Fabrizio Capaccioni, the principal investigator of the VIRTIS instrument on Rosetta. The northern hemisphere of the comet's nucleus is also filled with dunes and ripples that look somewhat like geological markings on Earth, Mars and Venus. Comet 67P/C-G doesn't have a robust atmosphere and high gravity like those planets, and yet it still has structures resembling...

When Marco Polo heard it in China, he suspected evil spirits. When residents of Copiapo, Chile, heard it emanating from a sandy hill, they dubbed the peak El Bramador, for its roars and bellows. Scientists today call it "singing sand," but they're all referring to the same thing: As sand grains shuffle down the slopes of certain sand dunes, they produce a deep, groaning hum that reverberates for miles. But how these dunes produce this "music" remains a much debated mystery. Another vexing question is why different dunes sing different tunes—and how can some even sing more than one note...

For years desert nomads have spoken of the haunting songs of sirens which lure travellers to a waterless doom. Now, a French scientist has replicated the effect in his lab using grains of sand A strange sound rises from the cinnamon-coloured sand: a deep, almost hypnotic rhythm. It could almost be the chanting of Tibetan monks, yet the setting is rigorous and clinical – the laboratory of French physicist Stephane Douady, where a robot arm is pushing small, precisely measured amounts of sand down a plexiglass ring. Douady is a leading expert in a very narrow field. He is investigating...

Recent images of Titan, Saturn's largest moon, bear a striking resemblance to some of the deserts on Earth. The pictures, captured by the Cassini spacecraft as it flew by Titan last October and released today, show sand dunes at Titan's equator much like those in the Sahara desert. "It's bizarre," said Ralph Lorenz of University of Arizona's Lunar and Planetary Laboratory. "These images from a moon of Saturn look just like radar images of Namibia or Arabia." On Earth, all wind is ultimately a result of heat differences produced by sunlight that warms the planet unevenly. Scientists have long assumed...