Amazing and Marvelous Mars Dunes

By Nancy Atkinson - October 15, 2009 02:14 PM UTC | Planetary Science

[/caption] I see the Bad Astronomer has beat me to the punch by

posting this image before I could

. But what an amazing and gorgeous image of dunes on Mars! However, my initial thought when I saw this on the

HiRISE webpage

was perhaps this was the first long-awaited look at

Phil's tattoo.

Seriously, doesn't this look like it could be body art? The dunes even have a Phil-like flesh color. But this wonderful image was taken by the HiRISE camera on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. There is a great database of dune images gathered for the

US Geological Survey on the HiRISE website,

and below, take a gander at more lovely dune images:

Click on each image to learn more from the HiRISE website.

[caption id="attachment_42724" align="aligncenter" width="580" caption="More Martian dunes from HiRISE."]

[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_42729" align="aligncenter" width="580" caption="Russell Crater dunes. Credit: Credit: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona "]

[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_42730" align="aligncenter" width="580" caption="Dunes in the Western Nereidum Montes. Credit: NASA/JPL University of Arizona"]

[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_42732" align="aligncenter" width="580" caption="Sand dunes. Credit: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona"]

[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_42731" align="aligncenter" width="580" caption="Dark dunes. Credit: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona"]

[/caption]

Check out the

HiRISE website

for more great images from Mars!

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson is a space journalist and author with a passion for telling the stories of people involved in space exploration and astronomy. She is currently retired from daily writing, but worked at Universe Today for 20 years as a writer and editor. She also contributed articles to The Planetary Society, Ad Astra (National Space Society), New Scientist and many other online outlets.

Her 2019 book, "Eight Years to the Moon: The History of the Apollo Missions,” shares the untold stories of engineers and scientists who worked behind the scenes to make the Apollo program so successful, despite the daunting odds against it. Her first book “Incredible Stories From Space: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Missions Changing Our View of the Cosmos” (2016) tells the stories of 37 scientists and engineers that work on several current NASA robotic missions to explore the solar system and beyond.

Nancy is also a NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador, and through this program, she has the opportunity to share her passion of space and astronomy with children and adults through presentations and programs. Nancy's personal website is nancyatkinson.com