A distant NASA satellite has captured curious lines crossing a crater on Mars. For the research team of the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE), at the University of Arizona, in the United States, there is no doubt that these are natural traces left by the Martian dust devils .
“Dust devils on Mars form the same way they do on Earth,” HiRISE told Mashable. This happens when the ground becomes warmer than the air, warming the air above. Updrafts increase as cooler air descends, creating vertically flowing air. It should be noted that dust devils on Mars can be much larger than those on Earth.
HiRISE scientists compared past images of the Red Planet’s dunes and came to the conclusion that dust devils formed the contrails, as opposed to rocks falling on the terrain. The NASA satellite captured these dust trails in eastern Aonia Terra, an area with multiple craters in the southern hemisphere of Mars.
In other parts of the planet, car-sized robots like NASA’s Perseverance rover are leaving artificial tracks as they explore a dry river in the planet’s Jezero crater, a place that once teemed with water billions of years ago. The Perseverance rover searches for evidence of early extinct life.
“If Mars supported life during this time, remains or signatures of these organisms could be preserved in some of these ancient rocks,” the space agency noted.
Have you watched our new videos on Youtube? Subscribe to our channel!
–
