Water and carbon dioxide ice
This is what a winter landscape on Mars looks like
12/24/2024 – 2:21 p.mReading time: 2 min.
The Mars Express probe has been orbiting the Red Planet for 21 years and photographing its surface. New photos show an impressive winter landscape.
It is well known what winter landscapes look like on Earth: fields, meadows, mountains or trees are covered by a layer of snow. But what does such a landscape look like on another planet? This is shown by new images from the “Mars Express” probe published by the German Aerospace Center (DLR).
The images show the Australe Scopuli steep slope of the Red Planet, which is located between 83 and 86 degrees south latitude on Mars – i.e. near the South Pole. Australe Scopuli is about 500 kilometers long.
The images show a late winter landscape that was photographed by the probe at an altitude of 350 kilometers. “The polar landscape shows an alternation of layers of light carbon dioxide and water ice with dark sands,” writes the DLR.
The sand areas are created because gas fountains shoot through the ice cover in many places at the end of winter on Mars. These fountains, also called jets, bring with them a lot of dust that is deposited on the ice.
The reason for this: As spring begins on Mars, the sun penetrates the transparent carbon dioxide ice layer and warms it from below. The ice changes from a solid to a gaseous state and expands. As a result, pressure increases under the ice cover and so-called jets shoot upwards.
Even though the images show an idyllic landscape, Mars is an uncomfortable place – at least for humans. The average temperature on the Red Planet is minus 60 degrees Celsius. At night and at the poles it can even get as cold as minus 125 degrees. Additionally, there is not enough oxygen in the atmosphere to breathe.
The images taken by the Mars Express probe are nevertheless impressive. They were taken with the HRSC (High Resolution Stereo Camera), which was developed at the DLR Institute for Planetary Research. December 25, 2024 marks the 21st anniversary of the arrival of the European Mars Express mission on the Red Planet. The probe arrived at Mars in 2003.