In 2010, NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter captured an unusual optical illusion on the red planet. This fascinating shot is the space photo of the week.
The photo shows dunes with tree-like objects on them. These Martian trees are nothing more and nothing less than dark sand pushed to the surface through sand dunes by sun-heated carbon dioxide ice. In the Martian spring, the sun heats the ice, causing it to sublimate and thus turn directly into vapor. The dark sand is exposed and slides down over the dune.
“It looks like the black sand is rising above the surface, but that’s an illusion,” said researcher Candy Hansen of the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter team. “The dark sand lies on the slip surface of the dune. The dark sand stops at the foot of the dune. The strips are up to 50 meters long.” A miracle of mother nature.
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Pearls of the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter
The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has already completed more than 70,000 orbits around the planet Mars† During this period, this spacecraft has taken countless beautiful pictures and many discoveries have been made. You can read an anthology of the most special discoveries – such as the discovery of salt water, a Marian apple pie and glass deposits in impact craters – in this retrospective.
More illusions on Mars
Several strange Mars photos have been taken in recent decades, such as the face of Gandhi and a secret base. The most famous optical illusion is the famous face on Mars. In 1976, NASA’s Viking 1 orbiter photographed this fascinating mountain. Table Mountain seemed to have a human face. The photo appeared in all the newspapers and was seen by many people as proof of the existence of life on Mars. Of course, NASA scientists knew better and thought from the start that the face was an illusion caused by light and shadow.
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Image at the top of this article: NASA