Sand Dunes On Mars Photographed By Nasa MRO Look Like 70's Psychedelic Wallpaper

These Funky Vs Are Actually Sand Dunes

No it's not s tacky 70's wallpaper design these, are in fact sand dunes on Mars.

The distinctive shape - reminiscent of Star Wars Starfleet logos as Gizmodo points out - is all due to wind and has adherents here on Earth.

Over to Nasa...

Migratory birds and military aircraft often fly in a V-shaped formation. The “V” formation greatly boosts the efficiency and range of flying birds, because all except the first fly in the upward motion of air -- called upwash -- from the wingtip vortices of the bird ahead.

In this image of a dune field on Mars in a large crater near Mawrth Vallis, some of the dunes appear to be in a V-shaped formation. For dune fields, the spacing of individual dunes is a function of sand supply, wind speed, and topography.

The slightly psychedelic image was captured by the space agency's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) just before the end of last year.

The MRO is doing some stirling work having just found evidence of liquid rivers. It also took this rather fantastic picture of an impact crater too.

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