NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter captures beautiful windblown sand in Ganges Chasma

Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has captured a beautiful image of windblown sand in Ganges Chasma, a canyon in the Valles Marineris system.

Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona

New Delhi: NASA has released a beautiful image of windblown sand in Ganges Chasma, a canyon in the Valles Marineris system.

The image was captured by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO)

According to the US space agency, the features are at once familiar and unusual to those familiar with Earth's beaches and deserts.

Most sand dunes on Earth are made of silica-rich sand, giving them a light color; these Martian dunes owe their dark color to the iron and magnesium-rich sand found in the region, as reported.

The University of Arizona, Tucson, operates HiRISE, which was built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., Boulder, Colo. 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.