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PIA26517: MRO's HiRISE Views Frosty Martian Dunes
Surrounded by frost, these Martian dunes in Mars' northern hemisphere were captured from above by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter using its HiRISE camera on Sept. 8, 2022.
 Target Name:  Mars
 Is a satellite of:  Sol (our sun)
 Mission:  Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) 
 Spacecraft:  Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO)
 Instrument:  HiRISE 
 Product Size:  2560 x 1920 pixels (w x h) 
 Produced By:  University of Arizona 
 Full-Res TIFF:  PIA26517.tif (14.75 MB)
 Full-Res JPEG:  PIA26517.jpg (1.424 MB)  

Click on the image above to download a moderately sized image in JPEG format (possibly reduced in size from original)

Original Caption Released with Image:

These Martian dunes in Mars' northern hemisphere were captured from above by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter using its High-Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on Sept. 8, 2022. Scientists use such images to track the amount of frost that settles on the landforms and then disappears as the weather warms in spring.

Martian dunes migrate just like dunes on Earth, with wind blowing away sand on one side of the dune and building up on another. Recent research has shown that winter frost stops the movement of sand grains, locking the dunes in place until the spring thaw.

The University of Arizona, in Tucson, operates HiRISE, which 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, visit:

science.nasa.gov/mission/mars-reconnaissance-orbiter

Image Credit:
NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona

Image Addition Date:
2024-12-20