Ice-Covered Martian North Pole

MARSDAILY

ESA's Mars Express orbiter imaged the snow-laden region of Rupes Tenuis on the martian north pole on 29 July 2008. Rupes Tenuis is located at the southern edge of the martian north polar cap, approximately 5500 km northeast of the Tharsis volcanic region. The images are at about 81 degrees north and 297 degrees east and have a ground resolution of approximately 41 m/pixel. They cover an area of about 44 000 km2, almost as large as the Netherlands. Credits: ESA/ DLR/ FU Berlin (G. Neukum). For more images please go here.

by Staff Writers
Paris, France (ESA) Mar 10, 2009
ESA's Mars Express orbiter imaged the snow-laden region of Rupes Tenuis on the martian north pole on 29 July 2008.

The images are centred around 81 degrees north and 297 degrees east and have a ground resolution of 41 m/pixel. They cover an area of about 44 000 km2, almost as large as the Netherlands.

Rupes Tenuis is located at the southern edge of the martian north polar cap, approximately 5500 km northeast of the Tharsis volcanic region.

At present, polar caps contain the largest water reservoir on the Red Planet. Recent data from the Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionosphere Sounding (MARSIS) on board Mars Express has revealed that both polar ice caps are 3.5 km thick.

The deep water-ice polar cap is covered by a layer of carbon dioxide ice that is centimetres to decimetres thick. During the warmer summer months, most of the carbon dioxide ice sublimates directly to vapour, and escapes into the atmosphere, leaving behind the harder water-ice layers.

Darker material, mostly dust, is brought in by the wind, and snow and ice are deposited in colder periods. This interplay between sedimentation and ice formation forms the Polar Layered Deposits visible clearly in the images.

Small, conical mounds have long been interpreted as being volcanic in origin. New data suggest that some of the mounds may be remnants of older material that covered the area earlier. This material may have been more resistant to erosion, forming the mounds.

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Rice Study Hints At Water - And Life - Under Olympus Mons

Houston TX (SPX) Mar 05, 2009
The Martian volcano Olympus Mons is about three times the height of Mount Everest, but it's the small details that Rice University professors Patrick McGovern and Julia Morgan are looking at in thinking about whether the Red Planet ever had - or still supports - life.

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