New Images Show Mars' North Pole Shifting in the Wind

New images of Mars show that ice and gusts of wind are constantly reshaping a huge region of the red planet.

The images, taken with the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, document sand dunes on the north pole of the planet over four years, revealing that they are subject to sudden, dramatic changes as well as slow, steady change.

This NASA image taken on February 9, 2009 is a view from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter

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This NASA image taken on Feb. 9, 2009, shows two classes of aeolian bedforms within Proctor Crater. Mysterious dark sand dunes around Mars' northern polar cap are shifting with the seasons, said a study published Thursday. Images from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter have shown the unexpected shifts, said the research in the journal Science.

Previously scientists had believed that these polar regions were largely static, their landscape changing little over thousands of years.

"The numbers and magnitude of the changes have been really surprising," said Candice Hansen, senior scientist with the Planetary Science Institute in Tucson, Ariz.

Mars is the fourth planet in our solar system. Scientists have long studied the planet in the hope of finding some clue as to how planets evolve and possibly support life.

The polar sand dunes, which cover an area of Mars about the size of Texas, are buffeted by strong gusts of wind and the seasonal melting and freezing of carbon dioxide ice, the researchers said.

"The level of erosion in just one Mars year was really astonishing," Hansen said. "In some places hundreds of cubic yards of sand have avalanched down the face of the dunes."

The findings are published in the journal Science.

In October, researchers say they found evidence of water beneath the surface of Mars.

This would suggest that there was water on Mars much more recently than had previously been thought.

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Pete Worden, director of the NASA Ames Research Center, recently introduced a project to embark on a one-way mission from Earth to Mars by 2030 and permanently settle the red planet. The project is called the Hundred Year Starship initiative.

"The human space program is now really aimed at settling other worlds," Worden said. "Twenty years ago you had to whisper that in dark bars and get fired."

The new evidence of change at the poles of Mars will help scientists understand how and when the different features of the planet's landscape were formed.

"Understanding how Mars is changing today is a key first step to understanding basic planetary processes and how Mars changes over time," said Alfred McEwen, professor of planetary geology at the University of Arizona.