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NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) discovered a magnificent blue dune, illustrating that Mars is more than just a red planet.
There are sand dunes on the surface of Mars, especially in the crater floors. At the bottom of the crater of Lyot, there is a "dune field". According to a NASA press release, a dune is made of finer materials and / or has a different composition of surrounding gray dunes.
NASA launched the MRO in space in 2005 to study the history of water on Mars. He takes pictures regularly and sends surprisingly colorful images of the surface of Mars to the ground. The machine uses a powerful telecommunication system, or "interplanetary Internet" as NASA calls it to send high resolution images to NASA. NASA is required to render the images public and post them on Flickr.
The images show a diverse landscape, but seemingly lifeless. With improved color, viewers can see reds, yellows, blues and purples, as well as a variety of different geological shapes on the surface of the planet. Weather, clouds, winds, asteroid impacts, dust devils, storms and even the momentum of the planet change the landscape to create interesting shapes. The climate of Mars is averaging around minus 80 degrees Fahrenheit with an atmosphere around 100 thinner than Earth's.
The sand dunes on Mars are "classic barchans" or crescent-shaped dunes. The dunes of Barchan are not so common on earth, but are formed in the same way. When the wind blows in one direction, it creates a pile of sand. The sand falls from one side of the pile, forming a sharp summit to the dune. By definition, the face of the dune is steep, but the trailing wall on the other side is not.
See all best photos of the week in these slideshows
Currently, there is a dust storm on Mars, blocking the sunlight with red dust. It is unclear whether the "Opportunity" rover, which runs on solar energy, survived the storm because the earth lost contact.
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