On Thursday, NASA released a stunning photo of a sea of dunes on Mars.
It also shows the wind-sculpted lines surrounding the northern polar cap of Mars.
The section captured in the shooting is an area 31 kilometers (19 miles) wide, NASA said. However, the sea of dunes covers an area as large as Texas.
The photo is a false color image, which means that the colors are representative of temperature. Blue represents colder climates, and shades of yellow mark the “sun-warmed dunes,” the US space agency wrote.
The sea of dark dunes surrounds the northern polar cap of Mars. (NASA / JPL-Caltech / ASU)
The photo is taken from a combination of images captured by the Thermal Emission Imaging System on the Mars Odyssey orbiter, NASA wrote.
Captured between December 2002 and November 2004, stunning images were released to mark the Odyssey’s 20th anniversary.
The Mars Odyssey orbiter is a robotic spacecraft orbiting Mars that uses a thermal camera to detect evidence of water and ice on the planet.
It was launched in 2001, making it the longest Mars spacecraft in history.
This article was originally published by Business Insider.
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