Great Image: The Dunes of Mars

While Bill Nye may see Mars as a barren wasteland, it can also be a beautiful and magical place.  The frost-covered dunes above show this to be true. 

Here is NASA's explanation of what we see in the image: 

Sand dunes cover much of this terrain, which has large boulders lying on flat areas between the dunes. It is late winter in the southern hemisphere of Mars, and these dunes are just getting enough sunlight to start defrosting their seasonal cover of carbon dioxide. Spots form where pressurized carbon dioxide gas escapes to the surface. 

NASA's High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HIRISE) aboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter captured this image on March 27, 2016. 

Image Credit: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona

New Impact Crater on Mars

Earlier this week NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory reported on a new impact crater on Mars.  The crater was spotted last November using the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter's High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera.  The impact happened sometime between July 2010 and May 2012.

About 100 feet in diameter, the crater produced a beautiful spread of colors, including an odd powder blue that you would not associate with Mars.  In the accompanying text, JPL explains "Because the terrain where the crater formed is dusty, the fresh crater appears blue in the enhanced color of the image, due to removal of the reddish dust in that area."