Spectacular 'blue' dune photographed on Mars

[UM-Bot]

This unusual looking sand dune was captured on camera by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO).

https://www.unexplained-mysteries.com/news/324412/spectacular-blue-dune-photographed-on-mars

[mdbuilder]

Far be it for me to criticize their findings but, having spent a fair amount of time on sand dunes, the odds of wind depositing non-typical windblown matter, against the 'grain, to a remote location, in mass, seems a bit astronomical.

[Timothy]

@mdbuilder, what is your point exactly? 

Things with astronomical odds do tend to occur in our universe, kind of a big and old place. The odds of you existing are far more astronomical than a dune on Mars, for example.

[Bunzilla]

I hate false colour images. They can be extremely misleading. Taking a look at the actual image, which is in black and white btw, it's very different. I do have to say that it looks quite odd. The 'typical' barchan dunes being referred to are also the same darker colour as the one we're being shown, so it seems to me that they have to be comprised of a different material. But... What? Aside from the dunes, everything else in the area is light coloured.

[XenoFish]

The spice must flow.

[Seti42]

5 hours ago, Bunzilla said:

I hate false colour images. They can be extremely misleading. 

They're only misleading if you don't know the perimeters of how they are colored. NASA wouldn't do false colored images if they didn't have a purpose for the actual researchers studying said images. NASA also has gone out if its way many, many times over the decades to explain this to lay people. Personally, I don't mind them at all. Sometimes they wind up accidentally beautiful. I say 'accidentally' because NASA is also not in the business of making art; they are doing science.

[cyclopes500]

I'm wondering if a Dyson hoover effect is occurring. The wind containing fine hard dust strikes the crater wall, eroding softer layers of rock, but not the harder ones. The shape of the crater wall generates a circular air motion, and the lighter grains are drawn into the middle of the vortice, but not the heavier ones, due to their extra density and weight. Beach sand verses talc for example.

[qxcontinuum]

I am confused. So the Blue Dune it is actually not blue but has been color-enhanced. So the Blue Dune is a matter of fact just a mirage created artistically by humans do highlight what exactly?

Edited December 29, 2018 by qxcontinuum

[Timothy]

5 hours ago, qxcontinuum said:

I am confused. So the Blue Dune it is actually not blue but has been color-enhanced. So the Blue Dune is a matter of fact just a mirage created artistically by humans do highlight what exactly?

The answer to your question is: No.

[mdbuilder]

Presumably the underlying sand was blown in and deposited in one direction, as indicated by the ripple pattern. Then, the blue sand on top of that - without disturbing the underlying sand? How?

[Bunzilla]

Not saying that false colour images can't be beautiful, but they do tend to confuse a lot of people.
The image was colourized to illustrate the difference between the darker coloured dunes and the lighter coloured sand around it. Why they chose blue, I have no idea.
I almost wonder if the dunes aren't actually dunes in the sense of being made of particulates, but have hardened somehow? Then the lighter coloured sand came in after? I don't think we have anything like this on earth?

[Orphalesion]

I agree that from the perspective of us laymen who might just be interested in what other planets actually look like, these false color pictures can be very frustrating, particularly if they become part of pop culture and are treated as the

[Aardvark-DK]

Harkonnen is going there right now....hope House Atreides, get there first....