Martian Dunes Flying in Formation
Migratory birds and military aircraft often fly in a V-shaped formation. The
“V” formation greatly boosts the efficiency and range of flying birds, because
all except the first fly in the upward motion of air -- called upwash -- from
the wingtip vortices of the bird ahead.
In this image of a dune field on Mars in a large crater near Mawrth Vallis,
some of the dunes appear to be in a V-shaped formation. For dune fields, the
spacing of individual dunes is a function of sand supply, wind speed, and
topography.
This image was acquired by the HiRISE camera aboard NASA's Mars
Reconnaissance Orbiter on Dec. 30, 2013. 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.
Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona
Caption: Alfred McEwen
Caption: Alfred McEwen
NASA
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