Similar to Earth, Mars also has polar ice caps and now new images have been shared by NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) giving the public access to pictures of the Martian ice caps.
The photos are an amalgamation of 32 pictures taken from 2004 to 2010. The pictures have been released by ESA and cover an area of about a million square kilometres of Martian soil.
The data was presented by ESA's Mars Express in collaboration with Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter (MOLA), which is situated on NASA's Mars Global Surveyor Mission.
Mars' Polar Ice Caps
Mars' polar ice caps are different from that of the Earth's. While the Earth's ice cap in North Pole and South Pole are made of water, Martian ice caps contain water along with bountiful frozen carbon dioxide. The polar caps are wastelands composed of dry ice.
What Did The Pictures Reveal?
According to ESA's website, the ice caps are a permanent geographical feature of Mars. During winters on Mars, temperature drops massively leading to about 30 percent of the carbon dioxide to precipitate on the ice caps, which makes them up to a meter thick. This is an added seasonal layer which won't be found during summer.
In summer months, most of the frozen carbon dioxide dissipates directly into the atmosphere in gaseous form leaving behind only water-based ice layers. The dramatic swirls that one can see of the ice caps are due to strong Martian polar winds.
The wind starts blowing from the elevated center towards the lower edge of the ice caps getting twisted by the Coriolis force, the same which cause hurricanes on Earth.
Chasma Boreale: Canyon Of Mars
An astonishing and prominent feature of the Red Planet has been revealed through these mosaic pictures. A 500 km long and 2 km wide trench has been discovered in Mars' North Pole. The canyon named Chasma Boreale is reportedly getting deeper over time and was earlier thought to be a relatively old feature.
As new ice and dust deposits build up around the canyon, it gets progressively deeper with time. Investigations conducted below the surface of Mars via radar-based instruments reveal that the ice caps are made up of different layers of dust and ice. The depth of these layers extends to about 2 km.
Dunes On Mars
In one of the pictures released by NASA, one can see long parallel dunes that have formed at the base of the polar caps.
"Dunes require a source of loose particulate material to form. The source of the northern dune fields around the polar cap may be from the layers of dusty ice that are eroded by strong polar winds," reveals NASA.
As the dunes retreat from the polar caps, the take on a crescent shape and are dubbed barchan.
