A recently released image from Mars shows an icy scene, with red and white ribbons dancing across a frosty landscape near the planet’s south pole.
While the snowy scene can evoke the feeling of a “winter wonderland” on the red planetit was actually captured by the European Space Agency Mars-Express orbiter on May 19. This means that the icy image actually represents spring in the Martian Southern Hemisphere and the Martian ice was beginning to recede.
Just six days before much of Earth marks a new year, in December. On the 26th, the red planet will begin its own new year, which will last 687 Earth days. The planet has four seasons, winter, spring, summer and autumn, and just like on Earth, the red planet’s winter is cold and summer is hot, although winter is much colder than ours, with temperatures on mars drops as low as minus 76 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 60 degrees Celsius).
Related: This icy crater near Mars’ north pole is a winter wonderland (photos)
The Christmas period is also special for Mars Express: Christmas Day 2022 marks 19 years since the spacecraft arrived on Mars.
Arguably the most prominent features of the newly released image are two massive impact craters, surrounded by alternating layers of water ice and sediment called “polar stratified deposits.” These deposits can also be seen in the ridge that runs between the two craters.
As the ice thins out, higher regions appear frost-free, and across the image, dark dunes break through the surface frost in other areas. Dune fields appear as sharp ridges parallel to the most prevalent wind direction and aligned with the shape of the underlying features.
Scientists think the dust that fills these dunes is dark because it comes from buried material volcanoes which erupted in the ancient history of Mars which was eventually exposed to strong Martian winds which easily carried it across the Red Planet’s surface.
Other dark spots in the image represent this dust and the action of jets bursting through the icy surface as the underlying carbon dioxide ice is turned directly into gas, a process called sublimation. These jets cause geysers of dust to be launched into the Martian atmospherethen settle in dark spots on the surface of the planet.
However, these are not the only image elements caused by sublimation. The polar region is dotted with a number of large, irregularly shaped features produced by the sublimation of ice. These look like empty lakes carved into the surface of Mars, with a pronounced example of this visible in the upper left corner of the new image.
Monitoring these features from orbit means scientists can observe the processes that shape the Martian surface and change the appearance of the polar regions.
But the image of spring in the southern hemisphere of Mars is not only filled with surface features. Hazy clouds are also visible on the Martian surface. Particularly visible in the center of the image, these clouds contain water ice and their path is, in part, influenced by the topography of the surface terrain beneath them.
During the Martian winter, carbon dioxide is deposited at both Martian poles as ice, which then thaws and sublimates in the spring. The release of gases into the Martian atmosphere increases atmospheric pressure and causes strong winds.
In turn, these winds drive the enormous exchange of matter between the surface and the atmosphere of Mars throughout the Martian year.
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