Summer on Red Planet - New image from HiRISE reveals dune field formed near base of the North Polar cap (See pic)

Image credit: NASA

New Delhi: Ever wondered what would summer be like on Mars or what would it look like if you were there during the season?

Seems NASA has the answers, courtesy - HiRISE (High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment) on board the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

This new image from HiRISE camera shows how summer on the Red Planet looks like - a dune field formed near the base of the North Polar cap.

As per NASA, the image was taken during the Martian northern summer, so there is no frost present on the dunes.

“The dunes closest to the base of the polar cap are long and parallel, indicating strong winds from the direction of the cap. As they get farther away from the polar cap, they start to form more crescent shaped dunes, called barchan dunes,” adds NASA.

Dunes require a source of loose particulate material to form. The source of the northern dune fields around the polar cap may be from the layers of dusty ice that are eroded by strong polar winds.

Repeated observations by HiRISE of dunes like these show measurable changes in some locations.

This discovery adds to the growing evidence that there are active processes happening all over the surface of Mars today.

HiRISE has photographed hundreds of targeted swaths of Mars' surface in unprecedented detail.

NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, launched August 12, 2005, is on a search for evidence that water persisted on the surface of Mars for a long period of time.