Picture of the month

'Trees' on Mars

Are there trees on Mars? Obviously not, but you could have doubts looking at this stunning landscape captured by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. The picture was taken in a vast region of sand dunes at high northern latitude on Mars. The dunes are covered with a layer of carbon-dioxide ice during the winter, which melts in the spring. The evaporation of the ice dislodges sand from the crests of the dunes. When the sand cascades down the dune, it produces dark streaks, which resemble aligned trees. Indeed, a small cloud of dust just kicked up by falling material is visible in the lower left part of the image. This new HiRISE image confirms that landscape diversity on Mars is beyond imagination (CERN Courier December 2009 p11).
Image credit: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona.