‘Ghost dunes’ on Mars indicate possible presence of life

Scientists do consider life on Mars a possibility and a new crescent-shaped ‘ghost dunes’ found on the planet adds to the evidences of this theory.

Scientists have spotted hundreds of crescent-shaped sand dunes on Martian surface, called ‘ghost dunes’. This finding is another indication of possibility of ancient microbial life on the Red Planet.

The pits were at the location where gigantic sand dunes towered numerous feet above the ground billions of years ago. Experts believe that these ghost dunes would provide an insight on the planet’s past climate and changing wind patterns along with a helpful target to hunt for clues of ancient life, as these dunes might have sheltered microbes from harsh radiation sometime, reported Daily Mail.

NASA captures stunning blue sand dune on Red Planet

“We know that dunes on Earth can support life, and dunes on Earth are very similar to dunes on Mars. One problem Mars has that Earth doesn’t is the surface radiation. If you are inside a dune, or at the bottom of a dune, and you are microbial life, the dune is protecting you from a lot of that radiation,” said Mackenzie Day, a planetary geomorphologist.

These dunes are the hardened casts of early sand dunes created when lava or sediments trickled and solidified around the lower contours of the dunes. The winds ultimately dispersed the top sand which resulted in the negative space being preserved as a pit on the planet’s surface and leaving the solid mold behind.

As per Science Magazine, these features were only observed on Mars earlier this year. The fields of these ghost dunes were spotted via satellite images on surface of two separate regions on Mars; over 480 were spotted at ‘Noctis Labyrinthus’ region, while over 300 were on the ‘Hellas Planitia’ region, standing at an average height of 130ft and 246ft respectively.

“There is probably nothing living there now. But if there ever was anything on Mars, this is a better place than average to look,” Day said. The finding of these ghost dunes have been reported in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets.