NASA images show the eerie beauty of winter on Mars

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Mars may seem like a dry, desolate place, but the Red Planet turns into an otherworldly wonderland in winter, according to New video shared by NASA.

It is late winter in the northern hemisphere of Mars, where it is located Perseverance rover and Ingenuity helicopter They explore an ancient river delta that once fed into Jezero Crater billions of years ago.

As the main feature of the planet, Dust also causes Martian weather. Dust usually heralds the arrival of winter, but the planet is no stranger to snow, ice, and sleet. At the poles of Mars, the temperature can drop to minus 190 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 123 degrees Celsius).

There are two types of ice on Mars. One of them is the kind we live on Earth, made of frozen water. Thin Martian air and subzero temperatures mean that conventional snow sublimates, or goes from a solid directly into a gas, before it touches the ground on Mars.

The other type of Martian snow is carbon dioxide-based, or dry ice, and can land on the surface. A few feet of snow tends to fall on Mars in the flat areas near the poles.

Sylvain Piccio, a Mars scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, said in a statement. NASA version. “If you’re looking to ski, you’ll have to go to a crater or a slope, where snow can build up on an inclined surface.”

So far, no orbiters or rovers have been able to to see Snow falls on the Red Planet because the weather phenomenon only occurs at the poles under the cloud cover at night. Cameras in orbit can’t look through the clouds, and robotic explorers that can withstand the freezing temperatures at the poles haven’t been developed.

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However, the Mars Climate Sounder on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter can detect light that is not visible to the human eye. Carbon dioxide snow has been observed at the poles of Mars. the Phoenix Lander who arrived On Mars in 2008, it also used one of its laser instruments to detect water ice from its location about 1,000 miles (1,609 kilometers) from Mars’ north pole.

Thanks to photographers, we know that snowflakes on Earth are unique and six sides. Under a microscope, Martian snowflakes probably look a little different.

“Because carbon dioxide ice has a symmetry of four, we know that the dry snowflakes will be cube-shaped,” Bicchio said. “Thanks to the Martian climate safer, we can say that these snowflakes will be smaller than the width of a human hair.”

Ice and carbon dioxide also form on Mars, and they can occur far from the poles. The Odyssey orbiter (which entered Mars’ orbit in 2001) watched frost form and turn into gas in sunlight, while the Viking lander spotted icy frost on Mars when it arrived in the 1970s.

At the end of winter, the season’s accumulated ice can melt and turn into gas, creating unique shapes that reminded NASA scientists of Swiss cheese, Dalmatian spots, fried eggs, spiders, and other unusual formations.

during Winter at Jezero CraterRecent highs have been around 8 F (minus 13 C), while lows have been around 120 F (minus 84 C).

while, in a Gale Crater in the Southern Hemisphere Near the Martian equator, the Curiosity rover, which landed on Mars in 2012, has seen highs of minus 5 Fahrenheit (minus 15 degrees Celsius) and lows Minus 105 Fahrenheit (minus 76 Celsius).

Seasons on Mars tend to last longer because the planet’s elliptical orbit around the sun means that one Martian year is equal to 687 days, or roughly two Earth years.

NASA scientists celebrated the Martian New Year On December 26, which coincided with The arrival of the vernal equinox in the northern hemisphere.

“Scientists calculate the years for Mars starting at the planet’s northern vernal equinox that occurred in 1955 — an arbitrary starting point, but it helps to have order,” according to a post on NASA Mars Facebook page. “Numbering Martian years helps scientists keep track of long-term observations, such as weather data collected over decades by NASA’s spacecraft.”