Dunes in Hellas

This beautiful dune field is located along the western margin of Hellas Planitia, the floor of a giant depression in the Southern Hemisphere of Mars. Scientists on the HiRISE team take multiple pictures of the same dune fields on the Red Planet to see if they can detect subtle changes that would indicate if the dunes are moving. Some Martian dune fields do shift and move under the present day environmental conditions, but at a rate that is typically much slower than dunes move on Earth.