astroengine writes "New analysis of high-resolution images of
Mars, taken by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment
(HiRISE) camera aboard NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, show
sand dunes in an area known as Nili Patera are shifting as fast
as some dunes on Earth — despite a dearth of high-speed winds.
Scientists suspect it takes a big wind to get sand particles
airborne, but once launched from the surface, they bounce around
with ease, thanks to the planet's thin atmosphere and low
gravity. 'It's kind of like playing golf on the moon — (the
sand) goes really high and far compared to what it does on
Earth. When it lands it can pick up really large speeds — even
with low wind speeds — and splash a whole bunch of other
particles to keep the process going,' Jasper Kok, with the Earth
and Atmospheric Sciences department at Cornell University, told
Discovery News. This research has strong implications for the
understanding of erosion processes on the Red Planet's surface
and for future astronauts gettin