NASA’s European Space Agency has captured breathtaking images of Mars’ south pole, revealing a rare winter wonderland scene. The Martian landscape is predominantly red, but the recent pictures show unusual frosty features that have turned the planet’s south pole white.
The images were taken by NASA’s Mars Express orbiter, which captured stunning views of carbon dioxide ice and dust layers at the planet’s southerly region of Australe Scopuli. This layer of ice covers a significant area, creating a mesmerizing scene across the Martian surface.
Unlike Earth’s snowfall, Martian snow comes in two flavors: water ice and dry ice. However, Mars’ thin atmosphere means that water ice sublimates into gas before reaching the surface. Dry ice, on the other hand, can reach the surface, creating unique effects such as pockets of trapped gas and fan-shaped dust patterns.
The images were captured in June, when it was almost summertime at Mars’ south pole. The warming rays of the Sun are causing the seasonal ice layers to retreat, evident on the left side of the image where dark patches are visible. As sunlight shines through dry ice’s translucent upper layers, gas sublimates and creates pressure that causes cracks in the top layer of ice.
This crack allows dust from below to burst out onto the surface, creating a fan-shaped pattern guided by the wind. The High Resolution Stereo Camera on Mars Express captured these images, providing detailed views of the Martian landscape and revealing new insights into the planet’s geology and composition.
The Mars Express mission has provided numerous groundbreaking discoveries since its launch in 2003, including a comprehensive map of Mars’ atmosphere and observations of its moons Phobos and Deimos.
Source: https://gizmodo.com/mars-orbiter-captures-a-winter-wonderland-on-summertime-mars-2000540892