On Thursday, NASA released an impressive photo of a sea of dunes on Mars.
It also shows wind-sculpted lines surrounding the icy polar cap of Mars.
The section captured in the shot represents an area 31 kilometers (19 miles) wide, NASA said. The sea of dunes, however, actually covers an area as large as Texas.
The photo is a false color image, meaning that the colors are representative of temperatures. Blue represents cooler climates and yellow tones mark “sun-heated dunes,” the U.S. space agency wrote.
A sea of dark dunes surrounds the north polar cap of Mars (NASA / JPL-Caltech / ASU)
The photo consists of a combination of images captured by the Mars Odyssey orbiter’s Thermal Emission Imaging System, NASA wrote.
Captured during the period from December 2002 to November 2004, the stunning images have been released on the occasion of Odyssey’s 20th anniversary.
The Mars Odyssey orbit is a robotic spacecraft that orbits Mars and uses a thermal imaging device to detect evidence of water and ice on the planet.
It was launched in 2001, making it the oldest spacecraft on Mars in history.
This article was originally published by Business Insider.
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