While it may look like a bunch of wriggly beasts crawling across the surface of Mars, the features seen here are merely sand ripples strewn across the Martian desert by the wind
While it may look like a bunch of wriggly beasts crawling across the surface of Mars, the features seen here are merely sand ripples strewn across the Martian desert by the wind.
Caught by the Mars Orbiter Camera aboard the Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft, this view of the red planet shows a grouping of windblown sand ripples in the floor of a giant crater - larger than the image show - in a region called Sinus Sabeus, south of the Sciaparelli Basin.
The ripples are much larger than their Earth counterparts, but smaller than sand dunes on both Earth and Mars. They are also ancient formations and no longer mobile, researchers said.
This image covers an area about 1.9 miles across (3 kilometers) across. The dark streaks between the ripples were formed by passing dust devils.
--- SPACE.com Staff
Credit: NASA/JPL/MSSS
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