NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) has clicked a stunning picture of the Red Planet’s surface showing frozen sand dunes in the northern hemisphere, resembling a kidney bean. The photo, taken by the High-Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera in September 2022 and only released to the public last month, could help find if conditions on Mars could have sustained life a long time ago.
Unlike the dunes on Earth which are constantly in motion, the kidney bean-shaped dunes on Mars appear surprisingly motionless. As per NASA, the dunes in the photo are covered in a layer of carbon dioxide frost during the winter on Mars. During the cold months, the planet’s poles can experience nighttime temperatures as low as -123 degrees Celsius which creates ideal conditions for both snowfall and the formation of frost. But unlike Earth’s snow, Mars’ snow comes in two forms: water ice and frozen carbon dioxide, or dry ice.
The frost, made of both water ice and carbon dioxide ice, stops the wind from carrying up the sand and prevents the dunes from migrating until the spring thaw comes. Studying how the carbon dioxide frost changes under current condition conditions could help better predict the past climate on Mars.
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Life on Mars?
Scientists have long been seeking answers about the presence of life on Mars. In October last year, a NASA study stated that microbes might find a potential home beneath the frozen water on the Red Planet’s surface. The scientists discovered that the amount of sunlight that penetrates the water ice could be enough for photosynthesis to occur in the shallow pools of meltwater beneath the surface of that ice.
A month later, a study by researchers at Harvard’s Paleomagnetics Lab revealed that Mars’ magnetic field, which could have supported life, may have lasted much longer than previously thought.
While Mars is now cold, barren and rocky, evidence suggests that the magnetic field may have lasted until 3.9 billion years ago, compared with previous estimates of 4.1 billion years — making the Red Planet a prime candidate for a thriving environment for life.
The extra 200 million years overlap with the era when the Martian surface became covered with water, the evidence for which has been gathered by several rovers sent by NASA.
