Megaripples near a sand dune on Mars. By Katherine KorneiResearchers have spotted large waves of martian sand migrating for the first time.
The discovery dispels the long-held belief that these “megaripples” haven’t moved since they formed hundreds of thousands of years ago.
They’re also evidence of stronger-than-expected winds on the Red Planet.It’s pretty staggering that humans can detect these changes on Mars, says Ralph Lorenz, a planetary scientist at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory who was not involved in the research. “We can now measure processes on the surface of another planet that are just a couple times faster than our hair grows.”Megaripples are found in deserts on Earth, often between dunes.