This starkly beautiful picture shows springtime on Mars

By Dina Spector From Business Insider

Sand dunes emerge from a winter coat of carbon dioxide frost on a spring day in northern Mars, in a photo taken by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter in January.

The south-facing slopes are dark where the ice has melted. Soon the dunes will be completely bare and all signs of spring activity will be gone, NASA’s blog explains below.

There are four seasons on Mars, as on Earth, but the seasons vary in length and a year lasts for 687 days. The planet is also much warmer when it is closest to the sun, in a state called perihelion, than when it is farthest from the sun, in a state called aphelion.

PHOTO: NASA

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Martian Sand Dunes in Spring

From NASA

Mars’ northern-most sand dunes are beginning to emerge from their winter cover of seasonal carbon dioxide (dry) ice. Dark, bare south-facing slopes are soaking up the warmth of the sun.

The steep lee sides of the dunes are also ice-free along the crest, allowing sand to slide down the dune. Dark splotches are places where ice cracked earlier in spring, releasing sand. Soon the dunes will be completely bare and all signs of spring activity will be gone.

This image was acquired by the HiRISE camera aboard NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter on Jan. 16, 2014. The University of Arizona, Tucson, operates the HiRISE camera, which was built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., Boulder, Colo. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Project for the NASA Science Mission Directorate, Washington.

For more on this story go to:

http://www.nasa.gov/content/martian-sand-dunes-in-spring/#.UyS4xyiSa69