Strange circular dunes on Mars spotted in these NASA photos

space.com ^ | Robert Lea

[BenLurkin]

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 collection of images is being used to monitor how frost recedes and melts on the Martian surface as the Red Planet reaches the end of its winter season. Illustrating this, while this image appears frost-free a similar image of the same sand dunes previously taken shows what they looked like while still covered in frost.

The sand dune image was taken while the MRO was at an altitude of around 185 miles (300 kilometers) over the Martian surface. Each pixel in the image represents 25 centimeters (9.8 inches).

[CodeJockey]

I remember when NASA found circles around Uranus.

[Red Badger]

WORMSIGN!.....................

[Mathews]

Foundations of ancient launch/landing pads. Bug tunnels? Exhaust vents?

[Flag_This]

Can’t do crop circles on Mars, so the aliens work with what they got.

[V_TWIN]

That did take long

[Karma_Sherab]

The obligatory "It's Aliens"

[MachIV]

“East of the Rockies.....caller your on the air”.....👽

[GaltAdonis]

Obviously Blair Candy Buttons.

Marvin the Martian has a sweet tooth!

[Jonah Hex]

Looks like somebody buried some ETs up to their eyeballs...

[MHGinTN]

“Life will find a way.”

[Ex-Episcopalian]

Strange appearance, looks like something just sitting on top a crinkled base.

[smokingfrog]

frost heave

[entropy12]

Dinosaur eggs!

[Larry Lucido]

Mallomars? Ring Dings?

[gibsonguy]

We must get the spice.

[MikeSteelBe]

"WORMSIGN!....................."

MAU'DIB!

[sit-rep]

Beryllium spheres!!

[ro_dreaming]

Klingons?

[Dandy]

Unicorn turds