Mars is a hot topic these days with the discovery of water, the revelation of what happened to the water on Mars billions of years ago, to this…mysterious sand dune. Yes, what they call the Namib dune.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Mars has a lot of strange landscape features and this sand dune is no exception. The dune is about 4 meters tall and what separates this dune from the rest is the fact that it moves 1 meter per year. Mars rover Curiosity took a side quest to actually study this up close. It’ll help scientists understand how Martian dunes act and behave. There isn’t a ton of information on this dune as this photo was taken in November of 2015. It still counts as a first for humans studying an active sand dune other than Earth.
Credit: NASA / JPL – Mount Sharp in the background as well, Curiosity’s next stop!
For more information or to download the full image in color you can check out JPL’s webpage here.