Winter wonderland on Mars? Here's what high resolution images show on the Red Planet
Mars orbiters. This year, are you hoping for a white Christmas? At least you can appreciate these pictures of a winter wonderland on Mars even if there isn't any snow where you live.
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Images of what appears to be a snowy landscape in the Australe Scopuli region of Mars, close to the planet's south pole, were captured by the German-built High-Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) on the European Space Agency's (ESA) Mars Express orbiter in June 2022 and by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter using its High-Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera in September 2022, as quoted in a report by Space.
The Science Behind Mars' Stunning 'Winter Wonderland'
However, this snow is very different from what we have on Earth. It is actually carbon dioxide ice, and there is a layer of it that is 26 feet (8 meters) thick at the south pole of Mars all year long.
The darker patches are made up of dust accumulations that have accumulated on top of the ice. A seasonal process raises some of the dust to the surface, but it is usually found far below the ice.
Winter frost also lined the sides of Mars' dunes, according to NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. This frost can prevent erosion, NASA writes, keeping the dust that makes up the dunes in place until the thawing season in spring.
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