Frosty landscape captured at Mars’ South Pole
by Erica Marchand
Paris, France (SPX) Dec 26, 2024
The latest image from ESA’s Mars Express offers a stunning glimpse of Mars’ south pole, resembling a winter wonderland with its icy hilltops and snow-like layers. However, this scenic view belies the reality of summer on Mars, where the Sun’s heat drives the retreat of seasonal ice formations.
A closer examination of the left side of the image reveals dark areas where the carbon dioxide ice has sublimated – transitioning directly from a solid to vapor. Sunlight penetrating the semi-transparent upper layers of ice warms the surface beneath, triggering the sublimation of the lower ice layers. This process generates pockets of pressurized gas that eventually crack through the overlying ice, releasing bursts of gas and dust.
These eruptions create striking fan-shaped patterns of dark material deposited on the surface, shaped by prevailing winds. These fans can vary greatly in size, stretching from tens to hundreds of meters. They also follow the intricate boundaries of Mars’ seasonal layered ice deposits, clearly visible on the left side of the image.
The image, a composite of data captured by Mars Express’s High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) on June 16, 2022, provides a detailed view of the planet’s surface. Taken during orbit 23324, it combines nadir and color channel data, delivering a resolution of approximately 15 meters per pixel. The scene is centered at 239E and 84S, with north oriented to the right.
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Related Links
Mars Express at ESA
Mars News and Information at MarsDaily.com
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