Flowing Barchan Sand Dunes on Mars

When does Mars act like a liquid?
Although liquids freeze and evaporate quickly into the thin atmosphere of Mars, persistent winds may make large sand dunes appear to flow and even drip like a liquid. Visible on the above image right are two flat top mesas in southern Mars when the season was changing from Spring to Summer.
A light dome topped hill is also visible on the far left of the image. As winds blow from right to left, flowing sand on and around the hills leaves picturesque streaks. The dark arc-shaped droplets of fine sand are called barchans, and are the interplanetary cousins of similar Earth-based sand forms.
Barchans can move intact a downwind and can even appear to pass through each other. When seasons change, winds on Mars can kick up dust and are monitored to see if they escalate into another of Mars' famous planet-scale sand storms.

Source: APOD

On TV shows and in movies, there’s a tendency to make planets all one environment (the ice planet Hoth, or Vulcan and Arrakis as desert worlds). But when we look at the planets in just our own solar system — all born from the same parent disk of gas and dust 4.6 billion years ago — we see diversity on a magnificent scale. Features rare on Earth (like seifs) are common on Mars, and Mars itself, though apparently fairly dead and lacking any extant water, has an incredible landscape of astonishing beauty and complexity.

What will it look like when we go there, stand on the crest of a seif, and look out over to the Martian horizon? What wonders will those humans be able to see?

I'll tell ya, as anxious as I also am to see human boots on those sands with human eyes surveying the horizon, I'd settle for new satellite sent to Mars with probes that could be fired down to specific spots of interest like this.

Nothing damaging or violent...just a small sensor package...a couple dozen of them? Where they can send one down and get a close up look for the brief period it works and confirm or disprove whatever people think the orbiters caught sight of from above.

Thanks for another great post to really spark the imagination and (looks at clock) it;s that time of the morning again where the rising sun chases bunnies to bed. lol... A great one to log off with.

I don't believe a word that that's sand. NASA has hidden alot of things to us, including their photo of an humanoid creature photographed by Opportunity. For what if NASA is now trying to hide the fact that Mars is already habitable, with small lakes formed by the glaciers (extreme right of the OP photo)?
Great find.

reply to post by swan001


can u post the picture of the humanoid object plz? much appreciation fellow human

Originally posted by swan001
I don't believe a word that that's sand.

What, the dunes?

NASA has hidden alot of things to us, including their photo of an humanoid creature photographed by Opportunity.

If they hid that how do you know about it?

For what if NASA is now trying to hide the fact that Mars is already habitable, with small lakes formed by the glaciers (extreme right of the OP photo)?

Lakes? Glaciers? I think you have been looking at the wrong photos, as I have seen thousands of Mars photos and I have never seen anything that looked like a lake or a glacier.

reply to post by elevenaugust


It looks a lot like Pacman in a cannibalistic sort of way...

Cool thread though - S and F. Seeing pictures like this just further push my desire to get off this planet to explore others.

Originally posted by swan001
I don't believe a word that that's sand. NASA has hidden alot of things to us, including their photo of an humanoid creature photographed by Opportunity. For what if NASA is now trying to hide the fact that Mars is already habitable, with small lakes formed by the glaciers (extreme right of the OP photo)?
Great find.

Just out of curiosity, if NASA hid the photo how have you seen it?

Originally posted by OccamsRazor04

Originally posted by swan001
I don't believe a word that that's sand. NASA has hidden alot of things to us, including their photo of an humanoid creature photographed by Opportunity. For what if NASA is now trying to hide the fact that Mars is already habitable, with small lakes formed by the glaciers (extreme right of the OP photo)?
Great find.

Just out of curiosity, if NASA hid the photo how have you seen it?

The photo comes from an ex-NASA officer - a whistleblower.
I have it somewhere in my computer. Very grainy but unmistakablely humanoid.