NASA Rover's Sand-Dune Studies Yield Surprise

Some of the wind-sculpted sand ripples on Mars are a type not seen on Earth, and their relationship to the thin Martian atmosphere today provides new clues about the history of Mars' atmosphere.

The determination that these mid-size ripples are a distinct type resulted from observations by NASA's Curiosity Mars rover. Six months ago, Curiosity made the first up-close study of active sand dunes anywhere other than Earth, at the "Bagnold Dunes" on the northwestern flank of Mars' Mount Sharp.

"Earth and Mars both have big sand dunes and small sand ripples, but on Mars, there's something in-between that we don't have on Earth," said Mathieu Lapotre, a graduate student at Caltech, Pasadena, California, and science-team collaborator for NASA's Curiosity Mars rover mission. He is the lead author of a report about these mid-size ripples published in the July 1 issue of the journal Science. 

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