Tattooed Mars
This high-resolution picture from the HiRISEcamera on board the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shows twisting darktrails criss-crossing light-colored terrain on the Martian surface.Newly formed trails like these had presented researchers with atantalizing mystery but are now known to be the work of miniature windvortices known to occur on the red planet, in other words Martian dustdevils. Such spinning columns of rising air heated by the warm surfaceare also common in dry and desert areas on planet Earth. Typicallylasting only a few minutes, dust devils become visible as they pick uploose red-colored dust leaving the darker and heavier sand beneathintact. Ironically, dust devils have been credited with unexpectedlycleaning the solar panels of the Mars rovers.
Image Credit: NASA, HiRISE, MRO, LPL (U. Arizona)
http://www.nasa.gov/...ature_1500.html
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