Daily Archives: January 22, 2023

Comparison: Earth and MarsVideo (01:28) showing how three NASA orbiters mapped the gravity field of Mars

Mars is approximately half the diameter of Earth, with a surface area only slightly less than the total area of Earth's dry land.[2] Mars is less dense than Earth, having about 15% of Earth's volume and 11% of Earth's mass, resulting in about 38% of Earth's surface gravity. The red-orange appearance of the Martian surface is caused by iron(III) oxide, or rust.[57] It can look like butterscotch;[58] other common surface colors include golden, brown, tan, and greenish, depending on the minerals present.[58]

Like Earth, Mars has differentiated into a dense metallic core overlaid by less dense materials.[59][60] Current models of its interior imply a core consisting primarily of iron and nickel with about 1617% sulfur.[61] This iron(II) sulfide core is thought to be twice as rich in lighter elements as Earth's.[62] The core is surrounded by a silicate mantle that formed many of the tectonic and volcanic features on the planet, but it appears to be dormant. Besides silicon and oxygen, the most abundant elements in the Martian crust are iron, magnesium, aluminium, calcium, and potassium. The average thickness of the planet's crust is about 50 kilometres (31mi), with a maximum thickness of 125 kilometres (78mi).[62] By comparison, Earth's crust averages 40 kilometres (25mi) in thickness.[63][64]

Mars is seismically active. InSight has detected and recorded over 450 marsquakes and related events in 2019.[65][66] In 2021 it was reported that based on eleven low-frequency Marsquakes detected by the InSight lander the core of Mars is indeed liquid and has a radius of about 183040km and a temperature around 19002000K. The Martian core radius is more than half the radius of Mars and about half the size of the Earth's core. This is somewhat larger than models predicted, suggesting that the core contains some amount of lighter elements like oxygen and hydrogen in addition to the ironnickel alloy and about 15% of sulfur.[67][68]

The core of Mars is overlaid by the rocky mantle, which, however, does not seem to have a thermally insulating layer analogous to the Earth's lower mantle.[68] The Martian mantle appears to be solid down to the depth of about 500km, where the low-velocity zone (partially melted asthenosphere) begins.[69] Below the asthenosphere the velocity of seismic waves starts to grow again and at the depth of about 1050km there lies the boundary of the transition zone extending down to the core.[68]

Mars is a terrestrial planet with a surface that consists of minerals containing silicon and oxygen, metals, and other elements that typically make up rock. The Martian surface is primarily composed of tholeiitic basalt,[71] although parts are more silica-rich than typical basalt and may be similar to andesitic rocks on Earth, or silica glass. Regions of low albedo suggest concentrations of plagioclase feldspar, with northern low albedo regions displaying higher than normal concentrations of sheet silicates and high-silicon glass. Parts of the southern highlands include detectable amounts of high-calcium pyroxenes. Localized concentrations of hematite and olivine have been found.[72] Much of the surface is deeply covered by finely grained iron(III) oxide dust.[73]

Although Mars has no evidence of a structured global magnetic field,[74] observations show that parts of the planet's crust have been magnetized, suggesting that alternating polarity reversals of its dipole field have occurred in the past. This paleomagnetism of magnetically susceptible minerals is similar to the alternating bands found on Earth's ocean floors. One theory, published in 1999 and re-examined in October2005 (with the help of the Mars Global Surveyor), is that these bands suggest plate tectonic activity on Mars four billion years ago, before the planetary dynamo ceased to function and the planet's magnetic field faded.[75]

Scientists have theorized that during the Solar System's formation Mars was created as the result of a random process of run-away accretion of material from the protoplanetary disk that orbited the Sun. Mars has many distinctive chemical features caused by its position in the Solar System. Elements with comparatively low boiling points, such as chlorine, phosphorus, and sulfur, are much more common on Mars than Earth; these elements were probably pushed outward by the young Sun's energetic solar wind.[76]

After the formation of the planets, all were subjected to the so-called "Late Heavy Bombardment". About 60% of the surface of Mars shows a record of impacts from that era,[77][78][79] whereas much of the remaining surface is probably underlain by immense impact basins caused by those events. There is evidence of an enormous impact basin in the Northern Hemisphere of Mars, spanning 10,600 by 8,500 kilometres (6,600 by 5,300mi), or roughly four times the size of the Moon's South Pole Aitken basin, the largest impact basin yet discovered.[80] This theory suggests that Mars was struck by a Pluto-sized body about four billion years ago. The event, thought to be the cause of the Martian hemispheric dichotomy, created the smooth Borealis basin that covers 40% of the planet.[81][82]

The geological history of Mars can be split into many periods, but the following are the three primary periods:[83][84]

Geological activity is still taking place on Mars. The Athabasca Valles is home to sheet-like lava flows created about 200mya. Water flows in the grabens called the Cerberus Fossae occurred less than 20Mya, indicating equally recent volcanic intrusions.[86] The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has captured images of avalanches.[87][88]

The Phoenix lander returned data showing Martian soil to be slightly alkaline and containing elements such as magnesium, sodium, potassium and chlorine. These nutrients are found in soils on Earth. They are necessary for growth of plants.[89] Experiments performed by the lander showed that the Martian soil has a basic pH of 7.7, and contains 0.6% of the salt perchlorate,[90][91] concentrations that are toxic to humans.[92][93]

Streaks are common across Mars and new ones appear frequently on steep slopes of craters, troughs, and valleys. The streaks are dark at first and get lighter with age. The streaks can start in a tiny area, then spread out for hundreds of metres. They have been seen to follow the edges of boulders and other obstacles in their path. The commonly accepted theories include that they are dark underlying layers of soil revealed after avalanches of bright dust or dust devils.[94] Several other explanations have been put forward, including those that involve water or even the growth of organisms.[95][96]

Proportion of water ice present in the upper meter of the Martian surface for lower (top) and higher (bottom) latitudes

Water in its liquid form cannot exist on the surface of Mars due to low atmospheric pressure, which is less than 1% that of Earth's,[22] except at the lowest elevations for short periods.[60][97] The two polar ice caps appear to be made largely of water.[24][25] The volume of water ice in the south polar ice cap, if melted, would be enough to cover the entire surface of the planet with a depth of 11 metres (36ft).[98] Large quantities of ice are thought to be trapped within the thick cryosphere of Mars. Radar data from Mars Express and the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) show large quantities of ice at both poles,[99][100] and at middle latitudes.[101] The Phoenix lander directly sampled water ice in shallow Martian soil on 31 July 2008.[102]

Landforms visible on Mars strongly suggest that liquid water has existed on the planet's surface. Huge linear swathes of scoured ground, known as outflow channels, cut across the surface in about 25 places. These are thought to be a record of erosion caused by the catastrophic release of water from subsurface aquifers, though some of these structures have been hypothesized to result from the action of glaciers or lava.[103][104] One of the larger examples, Ma'adim Vallis, is 700 kilometres (430mi) long, much greater than the Grand Canyon, with a width of 20 kilometres (12mi) and a depth of 2 kilometres (1.2mi) in places. It is thought to have been carved by flowing water early in Mars's history.[105] The youngest of these channels are thought to have formed only a few million years ago.[106] Elsewhere, particularly on the oldest areas of the Martian surface, finer-scale, dendritic networks of valleys are spread across significant proportions of the landscape. Features of these valleys and their distribution strongly imply that they were carved by runoff resulting from precipitation in early Mars history. Subsurface water flow and groundwater sapping may play important subsidiary roles in some networks, but precipitation was probably the root cause of the incision in almost all cases.[107]

Along crater and canyon walls, there are thousands of features that appear similar to terrestrial gullies. The gullies tend to be in the highlands of the Southern Hemisphere and to face the Equator; all are poleward of 30 latitude. A number of authors have suggested that their formation process involves liquid water, probably from melting ice,[108][109] although others have argued for formation mechanisms involving carbon dioxide frost or the movement of dry dust.[110][111] No partially degraded gullies have formed by weathering and no superimposed impact craters have been observed, indicating that these are young features, possibly still active.[109] Other geological features, such as deltas and alluvial fans preserved in craters, are further evidence for warmer, wetter conditions at an interval or intervals in earlier Mars history.[112] Such conditions necessarily require the widespread presence of crater lakes across a large proportion of the surface, for which there is independent mineralogical, sedimentological and geomorphological evidence.[113] Further evidence that liquid water once existed on the surface of Mars comes from the detection of specific minerals such as hematite and goethite, both of which sometimes form in the presence of water.[114]

In 2004, Opportunity detected the mineral jarosite. This forms only in the presence of acidic water, showing that water once existed on Mars.[115][116] The Spirit rover found concentrated deposits of silica in 2007 that indicated wet conditions in the past, and in December 2011, the mineral gypsum, which also forms in the presence of water, was found on the surface by NASA's Mars rover Opportunity.[117][118][119] It is estimated that the amount of water in the upper mantle of Mars, represented by hydroxyl ions contained within Martian minerals, is equal to or greater than that of Earth at 50300 parts per million of water, which is enough to cover the entire planet to a depth of 2001,000 metres (6603,280ft).[120][121]

On 18 March 2013, NASA reported evidence from instruments on the Curiosity rover of mineral hydration, likely hydrated calcium sulfate, in several rock samples including the broken fragments of "Tintina" rock and "Sutton Inlier" rock as well as in veins and nodules in other rocks like "Knorr" rock and "Wernicke" rock.[122][123] Analysis using the rover's DAN instrument provided evidence of subsurface water, amounting to as much as 4% water content, down to a depth of 60 centimetres (24in), during the rover's traverse from the Bradbury Landing site to the Yellowknife Bay area in the Glenelg terrain.[122] In September 2015, NASA announced that they had found strong evidence of hydrated brine flows in recurring slope lineae, based on spectrometer readings of the darkened areas of slopes.[124][125][126] These streaks flow downhill in Martian summer, when the temperature is above 23 Celsius, and freeze at lower temperatures.[127] These observations supported earlier hypotheses, based on timing of formation and their rate of growth, that these dark streaks resulted from water flowing just below the surface.[128] However, later work suggested that the lineae may be dry, granular flows instead, with at most a limited role for water in initiating the process.[129] A definitive conclusion about the presence, extent, and role of liquid water on the Martian surface remains elusive.[130][131]

Researchers suspect much of the low northern plains of the planet were covered with an ocean hundreds of meters deep, though this theory remains controversial.[132] In March 2015, scientists stated that such an ocean might have been the size of Earth's Arctic Ocean. This finding was derived from the ratio of water to deuterium in the modern Martian atmosphere compared to that ratio on Earth. The amount of Martian deuterium is eight times the amount that exists on Earth, suggesting that ancient Mars had significantly higher levels of water. Results from the Curiosity rover had previously found a high ratio of deuterium in Gale Crater, though not significantly high enough to suggest the former presence of an ocean. Other scientists caution that these results have not been confirmed, and point out that Martian climate models have not yet shown that the planet was warm enough in the past to support bodies of liquid water.[133] Near the northern polar cap is the 81.4 kilometres (50.6mi) wide Korolev Crater, which the Mars Express orbiter found to be filled with approximately 2,200 cubic kilometres (530cumi) of water ice.[134]

In November 2016, NASA reported finding a large amount of underground ice in the Utopia Planitia region. The volume of water detected has been estimated to be equivalent to the volume of water in Lake Superior.[135][136] During observations from 2018 through 2021, the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter spotted indications of water, probably subsurface ice, in the Valles Marineris canyon system.[137]

North polar early summer water ice cap (1999); a seasonal layer of carbon dioxide ice forms in winter and disappears in summer.

Mars has two permanent polar ice caps. During a pole's winter, it lies in continuous darkness, chilling the surface and causing the deposition of 2530% of the atmosphere into slabs of CO2 ice (dry ice).[139] When the poles are again exposed to sunlight, the frozen CO2 sublimes. These seasonal actions transport large amounts of dust and water vapor, giving rise to Earth-like frost and large cirrus clouds. Clouds of water-ice were photographed by the Opportunity rover in 2004.[140]

The caps at both poles consist primarily (70%) of water ice. Frozen carbon dioxide accumulates as a comparatively thin layer about one metre thick on the north cap in the northern winter only, whereas the south cap has a permanent dry ice cover about eight metres thick. This permanent dry ice cover at the south pole is peppered by flat floored, shallow, roughly circular pits, which repeat imaging shows are expanding by?? meters per year; this suggests that the permanent CO2 cover over the south pole water ice is degrading over time.[141] The northern polar cap has a diameter of about 1,000 kilometres (620mi),[142] and contains about 1.6million cubic kilometres (5.71016cuft) of ice, which, if spread evenly on the cap, would be 2 kilometres (1.2mi) thick.[143] (This compares to a volume of 2.85million cubic kilometres (1.011017cuft) for the Greenland ice sheet.) The southern polar cap has a diameter of 350 kilometres (220mi) and a thickness of 3 kilometres (1.9mi).[144] The total volume of ice in the south polar cap plus the adjacent layered deposits has been estimated at 1.6million cubic km.[145] Both polar caps show spiral troughs, which recent analysis of SHARAD ice penetrating radar has shown are a result of katabatic winds that spiral due to the Coriolis effect.[146][147]

The seasonal frosting of areas near the southern ice cap results in the formation of transparent 1-metre-thick slabs of dry ice above the ground. With the arrival of spring, sunlight warms the subsurface and pressure from subliming CO2 builds up under a slab, elevating and ultimately rupturing it. This leads to geyser-like eruptions of CO2 gas mixed with dark basaltic sand or dust. This process is rapid, observed happening in the space of a few days, weeks or months, a rate of change rather unusual in geology especially for Mars. The gas rushing underneath a slab to the site of a geyser carves a spiderweb-like pattern of radial channels under the ice, the process being the inverted equivalent of an erosion network formed by water draining through a single plughole.[148][149]

Although better remembered for mapping the Moon, Johann Heinrich Mdler and Wilhelm Beer were the first areographers. They began by establishing that most of Mars's surface features were permanent and by more precisely determining the planet's rotation period. In 1840, Mdler combined ten years of observations and drew the first map of Mars.[150]

Features on Mars are named from a variety of sources. Albedo features are named for classical mythology. Craters larger than roughly 50km are named for deceased scientists and writers and others who have contributed to the study of Mars. Smaller craters are named for towns and villages of the world with populations of less than 100,000. Large valleys are named for the word "Mars" or "star" in various languages; small valleys are named for rivers.[151]

Large albedo features retain many of the older names but are often updated to reflect new knowledge of the nature of the features. For example, Nix Olympica (the snows of Olympus) has become Olympus Mons (Mount Olympus).[152] The surface of Mars as seen from Earth is divided into two kinds of areas, with differing albedo. The paler plains covered with dust and sand rich in reddish iron oxides were once thought of as Martian "continents" and given names like Arabia Terra (land of Arabia) or Amazonis Planitia (Amazonian plain). The dark features were thought to be seas, hence their names Mare Erythraeum, Mare Sirenum and Aurorae Sinus. The largest dark feature seen from Earth is Syrtis Major Planum.[153] The permanent northern polar ice cap is named Planum Boreum. The southern cap is called Planum Australe.[154]

Mars's equator is defined by its rotation, but the location of its Prime Meridian was specified, as was Earth's (at Greenwich), by choice of an arbitrary point; Mdler and Beer selected a line for their first maps of Mars in 1830. After the spacecraft Mariner 9 provided extensive imagery of Mars in 1972, a small crater (later called Airy-0), located in the Sinus Meridiani ("Middle Bay" or "Meridian Bay"), was chosen by Merton Davies, Harold Masursky, and Grard de Vaucouleurs for the definition of 0.0 longitude to coincide with the original selection.[155][156][157]

Because Mars has no oceans and hence no "sea level", a zero-elevation surface had to be selected as a reference level; this is called the areoid[158] of Mars, analogous to the terrestrial geoid.[159] Zero altitude was defined by the height at which there is 610.5Pa (6.105mbar) of atmospheric pressure.[160] This pressure corresponds to the triple point of water, and it is about 0.6% of the sea level surface pressure on Earth (0.006 atm).[161]

For mapping purposes, the United States Geological Survey divides the surface of Mars into thirty cartographic quadrangles, each named for a classical albedo feature it contains.[162]

The shield volcano Olympus Mons (Mount Olympus) is an extinct volcano in the vast upland region Tharsis, which contains several other large volcanoes. The edifice is over 600km (370mi) wide.[163][164] Because the mountain is so large, with complex structure at its edges, allocating a height to it is difficult. Its local relief, from the foot of the cliffs which form its northwest margin to its peak, is over 21km (13mi),[164] a little over twice the height of Mauna Kea as measured from its base on the ocean floor. The total elevation change from the plains of Amazonis Planitia, over 1,000km (620mi) to the northwest, to the summit approaches 26km (16mi),[165] roughly three times the height of Mount Everest, which in comparison stands at just over 8.8 kilometres (5.5mi). Consequently, Olympus Mons is either the tallest or second-tallest mountain in the Solar System; the only known mountain which might be taller is the Rheasilvia peak on the asteroid Vesta, at 2025km (1216mi).[166]

The dichotomy of Martian topography is striking: northern plains flattened by lava flows contrast with the southern highlands, pitted and cratered by ancient impacts. It is possible that, four billion years ago, the Northern Hemisphere of Mars was struck by an object one-tenth to two-thirds the size of Earth's Moon. If this is the case, the Northern Hemisphere of Mars would be the site of an impact crater 10,600 by 8,500 kilometres (6,600 by 5,300mi) in size, or roughly the area of Europe, Asia, and Australia combined, surpassing Utopia Planitia and the Moon's South PoleAitken basin as the largest impact crater in the Solar System.[167][168][169]

Mars is scarred by a number of impact craters: a total of 43,000 craters with a diameter of 5 kilometres (3.1mi) or greater have been found.[170] The largest exposed crater is Hellas, which is 2,300 kilometres (1,400mi) wide and 7,000 metres (23,000ft) deep, and is a light albedo feature clearly visible from Earth.[171][172] There are other notable impact features, such as Argyre, which is around 1,800 kilometres (1,100mi) in diameter,[173] and Isidis, which is around 1,500 kilometres (930mi) in diameter.[174] Due to the smaller mass and size of Mars, the probability of an object colliding with the planet is about half that of Earth. Mars is located closer to the asteroid belt, so it has an increased chance of being struck by materials from that source. Mars is more likely to be struck by short-period comets, i.e., those that lie within the orbit of Jupiter.[175]

Martian craters can have a morphology that suggests the ground became wet after the meteor impacted.[176]

The large canyon, Valles Marineris (Latin for "Mariner Valleys", also known as Agathodaemon in the old canal maps[177]), has a length of 4,000 kilometres (2,500mi) and a depth of up to 7 kilometres (4.3mi). The length of Valles Marineris is equivalent to the length of Europe and extends across one-fifth the circumference of Mars. By comparison, the Grand Canyon on Earth is only 446 kilometres (277mi) long and nearly 2 kilometres (1.2mi) deep. Valles Marineris was formed due to the swelling of the Tharsis area, which caused the crust in the area of Valles Marineris to collapse. In 2012, it was proposed that Valles Marineris is not just a graben, but a plate boundary where 150 kilometres (93mi) of transverse motion has occurred, making Mars a planet with possibly a two-tectonic plate arrangement.[178][179]

Images from the Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) aboard NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter have revealed seven possible cave entrances on the flanks of the volcano Arsia Mons.[180] The caves, named after loved ones of their discoverers, are collectively known as the "seven sisters".[181] Cave entrances measure from 100 to 252 metres (328 to 827ft) wide and they are estimated to be at least 73 to 96 metres (240 to 315ft) deep. Because light does not reach the floor of most of the caves, it is possible that they extend much deeper than these lower estimates and widen below the surface. "Dena" is the only exception; its floor is visible and was measured to be 130 metres (430ft) deep. The interiors of these caverns may be protected from micrometeoroids, UV radiation, solar flares and high energy particles that bombard the planet's surface.[182][183]

Mars lost its magnetosphere 4billion years ago,[184] possibly because of numerous asteroid strikes,[185] so the solar wind interacts directly with the Martian ionosphere, lowering the atmospheric density by stripping away atoms from the outer layer.[186] Both Mars Global Surveyor and Mars Express have detected ionised atmospheric particles trailing off into space behind Mars,[184][187] and this atmospheric loss is being studied by the MAVEN orbiter. Compared to Earth, the atmosphere of Mars is quite rarefied. Atmospheric pressure on the surface today ranges from a low of 30Pa (0.0044psi) on Olympus Mons to over 1,155Pa (0.1675psi) in Hellas Planitia, with a mean pressure at the surface level of 600Pa (0.087psi).[188] The highest atmospheric density on Mars is equal to that found 35 kilometres (22mi)[189] above Earth's surface. The resulting mean surface pressure is only 0.6% of that of Earth 101.3kPa (14.69psi). The scale height of the atmosphere is about 10.8 kilometres (6.7mi),[190] which is higher than Earth's 6 kilometres (3.7mi), because the surface gravity of Mars is only about 38% of Earth's.[191]

The atmosphere of Mars consists of about 96% carbon dioxide, 1.93% argon and 1.89% nitrogen along with traces of oxygen and water.[2][192][186] The atmosphere is quite dusty, containing particulates about 1.5 m in diameter which give the Martian sky a tawny color when seen from the surface.[193] It may take on a pink hue due to iron oxide particles suspended in it.[27] The concentration of methane in the Martian atmosphere fluctuates from about 0.24 ppb during the northern winter to about 0.65 ppb during the summer.[194] Estimates of its lifetime range from 0.6 to 4 years,[195][196] so its presence indicates that an active source of the gas must be present. Methane could be produced by non-biological process such as serpentinization involving water, carbon dioxide, and the mineral olivine, which is known to be common on Mars,[197] or by Martian life.[198]

Compared to Earth, its higher concentration of atmospheric CO2 and lower surface pressure may be why sound is attenuated more on Mars, where natural sources are rare apart from the wind. Using acoustic recordings collected by the Perseverance rover, researchers concluded that the speed of sound there is approximately 240m/s for frequencies below 240Hz, and 250m/s for those above.[200][201]

Auroras have been detected on Mars.[202][203][204] Because Mars lacks a global magnetic field, the types and distribution of auroras there differ from those on Earth;[205] rather than being mostly restricted to polar regions, a Martian aurora can encompass the planet.[206] In September 2017, NASA reported radiation levels on the surface of the planet Mars were temporarily doubled, and were associated with an aurora 25 times brighter than any observed earlier, due to a massive, and unexpected, solar storm in the middle of the month.[206][207]

Of all the planets in the Solar System, the seasons of Mars are the most Earth-like, due to the similar tilts of the two planets' rotational axes. The lengths of the Martian seasons are about twice those of Earth's because Mars's greater distance from the Sun leads to the Martian year being about two Earth years long. Martian surface temperatures vary from lows of about 110C (166F) to highs of up to 35C (95F) in equatorial summer.[17] The wide range in temperatures is due to the thin atmosphere which cannot store much solar heat, the low atmospheric pressure, and the low thermal inertia of Martian soil.[208] The planet is 1.52 times as far from the Sun as Earth, resulting in just 43% of the amount of sunlight.[209][210]

If Mars had an Earth-like orbit, its seasons would be similar to Earth's because its axial tilt is similar to Earth's. The comparatively large eccentricity of the Martian orbit has a significant effect. Mars is near perihelion when it is summer in the Southern Hemisphere and winter in the north, and near aphelion when it is winter in the Southern Hemisphere and summer in the north. As a result, the seasons in the Southern Hemisphere are more extreme and the seasons in the northern are milder than would otherwise be the case. The summer temperatures in the south can be warmer than the equivalent summer temperatures in the north by up to 30C (54F).[211]

Mars has the largest dust storms in the Solar System, reaching speeds of over 160km/h (100mph). These can vary from a storm over a small area, to gigantic storms that cover the entire planet. They tend to occur when Mars is closest to the Sun, and have been shown to increase the global temperature.[212]

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Mars - Wikipedia

Noora Alsaeed has often thought about building a snowman on Mars.

Lets go over that again. A snowman on Mars? That desertlike, desolate planet over there? The one covered in sand? What an unusual daydream.

But Alsaeed knows a few things that the rest of us dont. She is a planetary scientist at the University of Colorado at Boulder whose work relies on data from a NASA spacecraft that orbits Mars. She studies the red planets polar regions and the peculiar molecules suspended in the atmosphere above them. She knows that on Mars, it snows.

Just like Earth, Mars has seasons, and during the winterabout twice as long as oursicy crystals cascade from the clouds and accumulate on the frigid surface. This sounds unbelievable, given that Mars is notoriously dry. But Mars gets around that little technicality by substituting intricate, six-sided water snow for something else. The Martian atmosphere, many times thinner than Earths, is primarily composed of carbon dioxide. In the most bitter conditions, the carbon dioxide transforms from a gas into small, cube-shaped crystals of icespecifically dry ice, the kind we earthlings use to set a spooky scene on Halloween. The ice is too heavy to remain in the Martian sky, so it flurries down, settling in shallow piles on the red planet.

Mars is the planet that, aside from Earth, has likely made the largest impression on the public imagination. Were well acquainted with Mars as the planet with all the rovers, the place where Elon Musk wants people to make a second home, the obvious next destination now that humans have been to the moon. But under all that hype are subtler, downright fascinating details about the fourth planet from the sun, such as its mesmerizing soundscape and its richly textured rock formations, layered like mille-feuille. Carbon-dioxide snow is just one of Marss many curiosities.

Read: Marss soundscape is strangely beautiful

Scientists began to suspect that Marss polar regions could become cold enough to turn carbon dioxide into snow as early as the 1800s, Paul Hayne, a planetary scientist at CU Boulder who studies Martian snowfall, told me. A NASA mission in the 1970s made observations that would later be interpreted as the first signs of carbon-dioxide snowfall. In 2008, a spacecraft that landed in Marss northern plains detected evidence of snowthe water-ice kind!falling from the atmosphere. But there was no evidence that the water snow actually reached the ground; the air on Mars is so thin that the water sublimates into a gas before the crystals can touch the surface.

The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, which has been circling Mars for more than 15 years, has captured carbon-dioxide snow reaching the surface, though. (Scientists dont have photographic or video evidence of carbon-dioxide snowfall, only detections made with laser technology and observations in wavelengths that are invisible to our eyes. Since most of the snow on Mars falls in the darkness of polar night, we need to use wavelengths of radiation outside of the visible spectrum, Hayne said.) The snow even accumulates, mostly near sloped areas such as cliff sides and crater edges, Sylvain Piqueux, a research scientist at NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory who studies Mars, told me. He said that enough of it piles up tohypotheticallysnowshoe in.

That idea tickles the imagination. What might it be like to stand on the Martian surface in the middle of winter, the temperatures finally cold enough to loose some molecules from the sky? Snowfall occurs only during the cold Martian night, so if you brought some night-vision goggles, youd see that you were enveloped in a bright haze. Carbon-dioxide snowflakes are tiny, smaller than the width of a strand of hairmuch smaller than their six-sided, water-ice counterparts. It wouldnt look as magical as it does on Earth, Alsaeed said.

But a Martian blizzard would be lovely in its own way. It would be extraordinarily quiet, Hayne said. You might even be able to catch the sound of little carbon-dioxide snow-cubes falling onto the ground. A gust of wind could kick up an opaque column of glittering snow, he said. Glittering and snowtwo words that may reshape your mental picture of Mars.

Read: Weve never seen Mars quite like this

So if astronauts could, in theory, snowshoe on the red planet, what else could they do? Skiing is likely out, Hayne said. Part of what makes skiing possible on Earth is that a thin film of liquid water forms on the surfaces of the ice particles as your ski creates friction, lubricating your motion, he said. On Mars, that friction would cause icy particles to turn into vapor and billow away, which would probably make your skis a bit squirrelly.

The experts dont really know whether other classic winter activities could take place on Mars. The idea of dealing with snow thats made of CO2 is just so alien to me, Alsaeed said. Its gonna be a completely different ball game. Piqueux isnt sure whether carbon-dioxide snow would clump enough to form a snowball, let alone a snowman; dry ice is not exactly a chemical enigma, but how the stuff behaves under Martian conditions is more mysterious, he said. At the very least, you might manage a snow angel. And as for opening your mouth wide to catch a cube-shaped snowflake? You cant stick your tongue out on Mars, ever! Hayne said. (Sorry, I had to ask!)

There is much to learn. Snow might be a universal process for [worlds] with an atmosphere, Piqueux said. Learning how it works might tell us quite a bit about planetswhat shapes their surface, how they evolve, and what they look like. Scientists theorize that Mars was more like Earth a few billion years agowarm and balmy, with real lakes and seas. Perhaps it snowed more back then too, with chunky flakes of frozen water, and the influence of that ancient precipitation remains embedded at the planets poles.

Many decades ago, well before any space robots arrived on Mars, scientists imagined the red planet to be a bustling place, believing that the surface markings they saw through their telescopes were evidence of intelligent engineering. The astronomer Percival Lowell wrote at length about these markings, which he called canals, in The Atlantic in 1895, sparking in the public imagination the tantalizing promise of an inhabited Mars. That ended up not being the case: Any life that may have arisen on Mars is either long dead or hiding out of view, buried away from the glare of the sun. The dissimilarity to Earth was almost disappointing.

From the May 1895 issue: Mars

But still, there are familiar echoes, as Lowell himself recognized. If astronomy teaches anything, it teaches that man is but a detail in the evolution of the universe, and that resemblant though diverse details are inevitably to be expected in the host of orbs around him, he wrote. He learns that though he will probably never find his double anywhere, he is destined to discover any number of cousins scattered through space. Cousins like Martian snowperhaps not enough to make a genuine snowman, but certainly enough to stir our imagination from millions of miles away.

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Mars Gives Snow an Alien Twist - The Atlantic