Deserts On Other Planets
Mars is the only planet in the solar system on which deserts have been identified. Despite its low surface atmospheric pressure (only 1/100 of that of the Earth), the patterns of atmospheric circulation on Mars have formed a sea of circumpolar sand more than 5 million km² in area, much larger than deserts on Earth.
The Martian deserts principally consist of dunes in the form of half-moon in flat areas near the permanent polar ice caps in the north of the planet. The smaller dune fields occupy the bottom of many of the craters situated at the Martian polar regions.
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Famous quotes containing the words deserts and/or planets:
“The brotherhood of men does not imply their equality. Families have their fools and their men of genius, their black sheep and their saints, their worldly successes and their worldly failures. A man should treat his brothers lovingly and with justice, according to the deserts of each. But the deserts of every brother are not the same.”
—Aldous Huxley (1894–1963)
“I would sell my life to avoid
the pain that begins in the crib
with its bars or perhaps
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when the planets drill
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—Anne Sexton (1928–1974)