From February to April this year, NASA's Curiosity Mars rover explore into four sites near a narrow hill on the Red Planet to examine about the specimens of dark sand taken here to those that was found in 2015 and 2016 when it explored the crescent-shaped hills.
The recently taken specimens from the linear sand dune, which is found uphill of Mount Sharp and about a mile south from the crescent dunes, will experience a locally available examination or analysis that will finish a two-phase campaign. The crescent and linear dunes are both parts of a dark sand swath known as Bagnold Dunes, which lines the northwestern flank of Mount Sharp, where the Curiosity wanderer is recently climbing, Space stated.
The dune crusade or campaign on the Red Planet desires to know how winds on the Red Planet shape dunes that are on a similar side of a mountain and are generally near one another into variable patterns. It also aims to know whether the winds sort the grains of sand in a way that impacts how mineral structures are delivered, which would affect studies of sandstone on Mars.
"There appears to be more contribution from the wind descending the slope of the mountain here contrasted with the crescent dunes further north," said Mathieu Lapotre of Caltech, who further says that they have watched more grain and ripple movements at the linear dunes than at the crescent dunes.
A specimen of sand taken from the linear dunes is in the probe's sample handling device found toward the end of its arm. A fraction has currently been examined by the rover's Sample Analysis at Mars or SAM instrument. "Earth and Mars both have enormous sand dunes and little sand ripples, however on Mars, there's something in the middle of that we don't have on Earth," Lapotre said.
Scientists said that the kind of wind-sculpted ripples on the Red Planet has not been seen on Earth and the connection of the sand ripples to the thin Martian climate seen today offers hints about the historical backdrop of the planet's environment.
