An ‘unbelievable’ discovery at the Martian equator could reorient missions to explore the planet.
Two spacecraft of the European Space Agency (ESA) orbiting Mars, ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) and Mars Express, have both confirmed the presence of a strange layer of frost on the top of the mountain. tallest volcano in the solar system and a series of other volcanoes in the Tharsis area.
The Tharsis area is the largest volcanic territory on Mars, of which the highest is the famous Olympus Mons, with an altitude of about 2.5 times the height of Earth’s Mount Everest.
Dr. Adomas Valantinas from Brown University (USA) and his colleagues determined this fragile, difficult-to-explain amount of frost when meticulously analyzing observational data from two ESA ships.
“We think that frost cannot form around the equator of Mars, because the combination of sunlight and thin atmosphere keeps temperatures relatively high at both the surface and the mountain tops,” explains Dr. Valantinas. .
Therefore, the research team believes that the existence of frost is very interesting and suggests that there are special processes, not seen on Earth, taking place on the red planet.
This layer of frost is extremely thin, with a thickness equivalent to that of a human hair (about 1/100 mm).
However, despite this, icy patches cover a large area of each volcano.
The volcanoes on Mars are so huge, the total amount of water from this frost layer can fill about 60 Olympic swimming pools, with a total volume of nearly 111 million liters of water.
This water also continuously swaps between the surface and atmosphere of Mars every day – lasting about 24.5 Earth hours – during the planet’s cold season.
The Tharsis region is home to many giant volcanoes located in the middle of a vast plain at the Martian equator.
Along with Olympus Mons, this volcanic cluster also has three “brother” volcanoes Tharsis Montes, including Ascraeus, Arsia Mons and Pavonis. Pavonis is as tall as Everest.
The existence of frost is not only evidence that the red planet is a world full of mysteries.
It’s also great news for many space agencies, including ESA, who have long been planning alien bases on the Moon and Mars.
This amount of frost is the source of life, the fuel source for rockets, equipment… that can be exploited on the spot, making these plans much easier than having to bring everything from Earth. Land.