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| New Mars Photo Shows Countless Worm-Like Dunes on the Red Planet
A newly released image from the surface of Mars has revealed an abundance of odd, squiggly worm-shaped dunes around the red planet's southern hemisphere. Dunes are scattered across Mars' sandy surface, and the newly-released NASA photo shows just how odd the formations look when snapped from above. The picture, taken by the space agency's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, shows a huge collection of dunes just west of the Hellas impact basin, one of the red planet's largest and most recognizable impact basins. "The Hellespontus region features numerous collections of dark, dune formations that collect both within depressions such as craters, and among 'extra-crater' plains areas," NASA said in a statement. The majority of the dunes seen in the image are 'barchan' dunes, which are crescent-shaped and are common on Earth in open, inland desert regions. However, some longer, narrower 'seif' dunes can also be seen. 'Seif' comes from the Arabic word for 'sword.' The worm-like shape of the sandy