For the first time, icy water deposits have been detected in the colossal volcanoes of mars close to the equator of the red planet, which are the largest mountains in the solar system.
An international team led by the University of Bern used high-resolution color images from the Martian camera CaSSIS, aboard the European Space Agency’s (ESA) ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter.
Understanding where water can be found and how it is transported is relevant for future missions to Mars and possible human exploration. The study has been published in the journal Nature Geoscience.
The frost was detected on the tops of the highest mountains on Mars, the Tharsis volcanoes. These volcanoes are the highest mountains in the solar system, with Mount Olympus rising up to 26 km above the surrounding plains.
This frost formation was not expected because these mountains are located at low latitudes near the equator of Mars. “At these low latitudes, high amounts of sunlight tend to keep surface temperatures high. Therefore, we did not expect to find frost there,” said the study’s lead author, Dr. Adomas Valantinas, in a statement from the THAT.
Additionally, Mars’ thin atmosphere is not effective at cooling the surface, so high-altitude surfaces can become as hot as low-altitude ones at midday, unlike on Earth.
MORNING FROST DEPOSITS
“Upward winds bring air containing water vapor from lowlands and this air cools as it reaches high altitudes, causing condensation. This is a familiar phenomenon on both Earth and Mars,” explains Valantinas.
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The same phenomenon causes Mount Arsia’s surprising elongated cloud, and the new study shows it also leads to deposits of morning frost in the volcanoes of Tharsis.
“As we could see in the CaSSIS images, the thin frosts are only present briefly, for a few hours around dawn, before evaporating with sunlight,” continues Valantinas.
To identify the frost, the team analyzed more than 5,000 images taken by the CaSSIS Martian camera in Bern. Since April 2018, CaSSIS has provided observations of local dust activity, seasonal changes in CO2 ice deposits, and the existence of dry avalanches on Mars.
“The fact that we can now detect nocturnal water frost deposition on Mars at visual wavelengths and with high resolution is further evidence of the impressive scientific capabilities of the Bern camera system,” Thomas said.
The discovery was validated using independent observations from the High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) on board ESA’s Mars Express orbiter and the NOMAD (Nadir and Occultation for Mars Discovery) spectrometer on board TGO.
