Planet Mars: Shapes & Spots on a Polar Sand Dune | NASA MRO

Planet Mars: Shapes & Spots on a Polar Sand Dune | NASA MRO

This HiRISE image shows numerous dark shapes and bright spots on a sand dune in the Northern polar regions of Mars. The bright spots are carbon dioxide frost. On Mars, the main atmospheric component is carbon dioxide. This circulates seasonally between the atmosphere and the polar regions. One of the reasons that permit this process is the fact that temperatures on Mars are much colder than on Earth. This allows carbon dioxide frost to condense on the surface in winter.

When spring comes however, the surface heats up and the carbon dioxide frost eventually sublimates (turns directly from the solid to the vapor state), and forms jets of carbon dioxide mixed with dust, leading to the formation of the dark features we see in the image.

Such processes occur seasonally on Mars, and therefore are continuously being monitored by the HiRISE scientists to assess the differences from one year to the next.

This enhanced color images is 1 km across.

HiRISE, or the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment, is a powerful camera that takes pictures covering vast areas of Martian terrain while being able to see features as small as a kitchen table.

Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) is a spacecraft designed to study the geology and climate of Mars, to provide reconnaissance of future landing sites, and to relay data from surface missions back to Earth. It was launched on August 12, 2005, and reached Mars on March 10, 2006. 

The University of Arizona, in Tucson, operates HiRISE. It was built by BAE Systems in Boulder, Colorado. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of Caltech in Pasadena, California, manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington.

For more information on MRO, visit:

https://mars.nasa.gov/mro

science.nasa.gov/mission/mars-reconnaissance-orbiter
https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/MRO/mission/index.html

Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona
Caption Credit: M. Ramy El-Maarry  
Capture Date: Dec. 1, 2013
Release Date: Jan. 22, 2014

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