Posted on 01/19/2016 1:31:48 AM PST by SunkenCiv
Explanation: What is that dark sand dune doing on Mars? NASA's robotic rover Curiosity has been studying it to find out, making this the first-ever up-close investigation of an active sane dune on another world. Named Namib Dune, the dark sand mound stands about 4 meters tall and, along with the other Bagnold Dunes, is located on the northwestern flank of Mount Sharp. The featured image was taken last month and horizontally compressed here for comprehensibility. Wind is causing the dune to advance about one meter a year across the light bedrock underneath, and wind-blown sand is visible on the left. Part of the Curiosity rover itself is visible on the lower right. Just in the past few days, Curiosity scooped up some of the dark sand for a detailed analysis. After further exploration of the Bagnold Dunes, Curiosity is scheduled to continue its trek up the 5-kilometer tall Mount Sharp, the central peak in the large crater where the car-sized rover landed.
(Excerpt) Read more at 129.164.179.22 ...
[Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech]
What an odd-looking dune.
I got so excited about Pluto last summer, I completely forgot about checking in on the Curiosity site. I need to check back there again for other images that have been posted the past several months.
Soooo.we fired a rocket...10 yrs ago...to land on the back of a comet/astroid last year....a good shot....but....we have never seen the other side of our own moon?.....
really?
The Apollo missions orbited the moon and took pictures I believe
Huh? That question makes no sense.
It was obviously compressed in the APOD pic. It’s the darkness and it sitting in the middle of what looks like relatively solid terrain that truck me as odd. Like someone dumped a large load of sand there.
But that’s what’s fun about seeing images from the other planets. One surprise after another.
Thanks! I missed that thread last month.
Love the close-up of the sand grains and it’s now my desktop wallpaper. :-)
That looks like Colorado’s Great Sand Dunes.
Bigass prairie dog town.
What’s that white pillar-looking thing behind the “dune”? The whole scene looks like a photo shoot setup on a movie lot; and that the photo was published before all the non-essential background stuff was cropped or air brushed out. In my poor, unwashed, ignorant, pragmatic humble opinion.
So, they found life on Mars and it turns out to be fire ants. I’m not going to Mars now that I know that.
It’s where Hillary’s missing e-mails are buried.
Poor air brushing of the returned photo by NASA.
Looks like mine tailings from the mines we lived at in Utah! Wonder what or WHO is on the other side!
Yep. Mine tailings, but by whom!
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