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These Eerie-Looking Dark Patches on Mars Look Like Cheetah Spots

While Mars isn't exactly a life-friendly world, it has some of the most striking topographical features in the Solar System. Its rocky surface is peppered with impact craters, valleys, dunes, and ancient river networks that are covered in dust. Sometimes, wind plays a good part in creating even more interesting patterns.
Seasonal Fans in the Southern Hemisphere 7 photos
Photo: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UArizona
Spring Fans at MacclesfieldSpring Fans at MacclesfieldSeasonal Fans in the Southern HemisphereIcy cap at Mars’ South PoleOblique perspective view of the South Pole of MarsLayers of Mars’s south polar cap
Every Martian winter, carbon dioxide from the atmosphere freezes, forming an additional layer of dry ice on top of the permanent polar ice caps. When spring arrives, sunshine warms up the ground and causes the sublimation of ice from the base.

As a result of this process, the gas gets trapped below the ice layer under increasing pressure. When the ice cracks, the pressurized gas will eventually escape, taking with it the dust that sits on the surface.

It will carry with it the fine dust particles in the direction in which the wind blows at the time of the eruption, creating fan-shaped deposits. These deposits can also appear as dark streaks, and if there's no wind to blow the gas along with the materials on top, they will look like blotches. But no matter what shape and size they have, these remarkable features can be spotted from space.

The seasonal fans that you're seeing (click the main image to enlarge) look strikingly similar to the spots on the fur of a cheetah. They were captured by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) from an altitude of 247 km (154 miles) above the Red Planet's surface.

The spacecraft has been studying Mars' atmosphere from orbit since 2006. It has also been busy mapping its terrain with the help of a device called HiRISE – that's the orbiter's powerful camera that it uses to point at different areas on the Red Planet.

MRO has taken thousands of images of the Martian surface, including these seasonal fans in the Southern Hemisphere, which are helping scientists learn more about our neighbor.

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About the author: Florina Spînu
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Florina taught herself how to drive in a Daewoo Tico (a rebadged Suzuki Alto kei car) but her first "real car" was a VW Golf. When she’s not writing about cars, drones or aircraft, Florina likes to read anything related to space exploration and take pictures in the middle of nature.
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