Kidney Bean-Shaped Sand Dunes Spotted On Mars Could Hgreater Clues To Life

NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) has clicked a stunning picture of the Red Planet’s surface shotriumphg frozen sand dunes in the northern hemisphere, resembling a kidney bean. The ptoastyo, apshown by the High-Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera in September 2022 and only freed to the accessible last month, could help discover if conditions on Mars could have upretained life a lengthy time ago.

Unappreciate the dunes on Earth which are constantly in motion, the kidney bean-shaped dunes on Mars materialize astonishingly motionless. As per NASA, the dunes in the ptoastyo are covered in a layer of carbon dioxide frost during the triumphter on Mars. During the chilly months, the scheduleet’s poles can experience nighttime temperatures as low as -123 degrees Celsius which produces chooseimal conditions for both snowdescfinish and the createation of frost. But unappreciate Earth’s snow, Mars’ snow comes in two creates: water ice and frozen carbon dioxide, or parched ice.

The frost, made of both water ice and carbon dioxide ice, stops the triumphd from carrying up the sand and impedes the dunes from migrating until the spring thaw comes. Studying how the carbon dioxide frost alters under current condition conditions could help better predict the past climate on Mars.

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Life on Mars?

Scientists have lengthy been seeking answers about the presence of life on Mars. In October last year, a NASA study stated that microbes might discover a potential home betidyh the frozen water on the Red Planet’s surface. The scientists discovered that the amount of sunweightless that penetrates the water ice could be enough for ptoastyosynthesis to occur in the shapvalidate pools of meltwater betidyh the surface of that ice.

A month postponecessitater, a study by researchers at Harvard’s Paleomagnetics Lab discdispondered that Mars’ magnetic field, which could have helped life, may have lasted much lengthyer than previously thought.

While Mars is now chilly, infruitful and rocky, evidence recommends that the magnetic field may have lasted until 3.9 billion years ago, assessd with previous approximates of 4.1 billion years — making the Red Planet a prime truthfulate for a thriving environment for life.

The extra 200 million years overlap with the era when the Martian surface became covered with water, the evidence for which has been assembleed by cut offal rovers sent by NASA.