Planetary scientists have made images of almost perfectly shaped sand dunes on the Martian surface. While sand dunes on the Red Planet come in a variety of shapes and sizes, such well-defined circles are unusual. The slight asymmetry of the dunes indicates that their steep sides face south. The University of Arizona running the High Definition Imaging Experiment (HiRise) camera used to acquire the image is on the following list: expressionAlthough Martian winds can be variable, it indicates that the sands are blowing southward.

The image was taken on November 22, 2022 at 42,505 degrees latitude and 67,076 degrees longitude. This is part of a series of images taken by the HiRise camera orbiting Mars on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO).

The image collection is used to observe how frost on the Martian surface recedes and melts as winter on the Red Planet comes to an end. To illustrate this, although this image appears without frost, a similar earlier shot of the same dunes shows how they look while still covered in frost. The image of the dune was taken when the MRO was about 185 miles (300 kilometers) above the Martian surface. Each pixel in the image corresponds to 25 centimeters (9.8 inches).

This is just one of 60 places HiRise has observed on Mars. The high-resolution camera has been orbiting the Red Planet since MRO reached Mars in 2006 and began conducting the first dedicated survey of the planet’s sand dunes. Collecting repeated observations of the dunes during one Martian year (687 Earth days) allowed planetary scientists to track the speed at which the dunes were moving. He found that the dunes move from the equator to the poles at a rate of 3.3 feet (1 meter) each Martian year.

The camera captured many Martian dunes in an impressive range of sizes and shapes, revealing a lot about weather conditions on the Red Planet. For example, while exploring Lio Crater in the northern Martian plains in 2010, HiRise captured images of dune fields that show how local winds are blowing through the topology of this complex 146-mile-wide (236 kilometers) impact crater.

HiRise also conducts ongoing studies looking at glacial formations on Mars and examining crack-like faults that cross their surface. By collecting repeated observations over time, the images can help scientists identify the type of fracture mechanics that occurs in the so-called “viscous flow features” found at the base of slopes on Mars. It is believed that these deposits were once rich in ice, but the origin of this ice is currently a mystery. NASA reports. On December 21, 2010, MRO’s primary mandate ended five years and six months after its launch on August 12, 2005. This new image shows that even 12 years after the end of the mission, the contribution of the spacecraft and HiRise camera to science is far from finished.