Once in a Blue Dune

Sand dunes often accumulate in the floors of craters. In this region of Lyot Crater NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) shows a field of classic barchan dunes.

Just to the south of the group of barchan dunes is one large dune with a more complex structure. This particular dune, appearing like turquoise blue in enhanced color (false color), is made of finer material and/or has a different composition than the surrounding.

The map is projected above at a scale of 25 centimeters (9.8 inches) per pixel. [The original image scale is 34.7 centimeters (13.7 inches) per pixel (with 1 x 1 binning); objects on the order of 104 centimeters (40.9 inches) across are resolved.] North is up.

This is a stereo pair with ESP_053406_2295.

The University of Arizona, Tucson, operates HiRISE, which was built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., Boulder, Colorado. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of Caltech in Pasadena, California, manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington.