Incredible images have shown an area of Mars which has been named after a Scottish beauty spot by NASA scientists.
David Brown, a Formartine Area Ranger in Ellon, wrote to Dr. Abigail Fraeman, a research scientist at the Mars Science Laboratory.
He asked why there is an area of Mars named the 'Sands of Forvie', which in Ellon and is one of the largest areas of blown sand in Scotland.
Around six weeks later, David received a full and detailed explanation from the deputy project scientist for Curiosity, the Mars rover.
He also received some amazing pictures taken from the Red Planet.
In her letter, Dr. Fraeman wrote: "Each NASA Mars mission decides on their own unique convention for choosing feature names.
"For Curiosity, we divided our landing area into quadrants, and each quadrant is named after a region that contains famous geologic features on Earth. We use the quadrant name as the theme to choose target names.
"Curiosity is currently in the 'Torridon' quadrant, so all of the names we have been using are related to Scottish towns, lochs, and regions of geologic interest.
"We have a couple science team members on the team from the UK who have done field work in Scotland – John Bridges from the University of Leicester and Sanjeev Gupta at Imperial College - and they have lead the effort to collect target names that fit this theme.
"It's been great fun for me to learn more about Scottish places during the last few years!"
She continued: "One of the most striking features in the Torridon quadrant is a giant sheet of sand (1 km wide), and 'Sands of Forvie' seemed like a very appropriate name for this feature to us.
"The 'Sands of Forvie' have been visible to Curiosity from many locations for months, and we had the opportunity to get up close and study this feature about a year ago."
Dr. Fraeman also sent over some images of Mars processed by amateur image processors.
David told the Record: "I’m chuffed to bits that this has generated so much interest in our corner of Aberdeenshire.
"It was great to receive such a full and comprehensive reply and the wonderful photographs.
"The postcard is a beautiful image, I love the idea of a postcard ‘from Mars’!"
David added: "I would never have thought that there were British scientists working at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory who just happened to have done fieldwork in Scotland and who knew Forvie.
"You expect our National Nature Reserve to be famous in ornithological circles because of the bird life on the Ythan Estuary, it clearly is of interest to geologists too.
"I hope the attention the post created will draw even more people to visit this beautiful area of Aberdeenshire."
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