NASA Reveals Snowy Dunes On The Surface Of Mars

NASA revealed some new images showing the snowy dunes of Mars during springtime.

In one of its recent posts, NASA revealed that the Red Planet could to have a wintery feel. Namely, the aerospace agency released images of snowy dunes of Mars, as snow and ice covered its surface formations.

According to the post through which NASA published the pictures, these images were taken on May 21, 2017. At the time, it was spring in the Northern Hemisphere of Mars. NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter snapped the photos with its HiRISE or High-Resolution Imaging Science Experiment camera.

Snowy Dunes on Mars, Also Predicted by an Experiment

In the image description, NASA explains that snow and ice “inexorably” covered the dunes during the winter time. It also points out that the ice and snow on Mars are quite different from those here on Earth.

Instead of being frozen water, these are based on carbon dioxide, or as it is more commonly known, dry ice.

According to the report, the ‘smooth’ surface of the snowy dunes starts cracking as the sun starts shining on them come springtime. As the dunes crack, this also reportedly releases gas which carries dark sand from the dunes down below. This states NASA, “often creates beautiful patterns”.

However, some of the frost remains trapped behind small and sheltered ridges on the rough surface among the dunes.

A team of scientists also released a new study in which it presents the results of its new simulations. These explore the effects of the ‘flip-flopping’ layers in the atmosphere on Mars. According to the simulations, these combine in a more ‘vigorous’ manner than expected, which produces stormy weather.

In turn, this can also lead to a dusting of snow settling on the dunes of Mars. These snowfalls were seemingly quite insubstantial, some of them not even reaching the surface, and can happen in bursts during the summertime.

Details on the study and its results can be accessed in a paper in the journal Nature Geoscience.

Image Source: JPL/NASA

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Nancy Young

When I was younger I used to spend almost all of my free time playing computer games. My mom and dad would go mental over this. “You’re never going to do anything with your life if you are going to play games all day” they used to say. What was even more unusual was the fact that I played more games than most of the guys in my friend group. Looking back, I have to admit that I probably played a bit too much, but I also learned a lot of great things. When I turned 20 I decided that it was high-time to make some money of my own, but the only jobs I could get were that of waitress or cashier. How exciting. After several excruciating months of serving tables I had a great idea: since I love gaming so much, why don’t I write about it? That’s when I started doing small writing projects on Elance. Eventually, I got an offer for a part-time job. During that time I learned all about content marketing strategies and how search engines work. I started writing about various topics such as technology, health and lifestyle and discovered that I was actually good at it. On November 24, 2014, I became part of the ArgyllFreePress team.