Pix of pack ice on Mars
"A frozen sea, surviving as blocks of pack ice, may lie just beneath the surface of Mars, suggest observations from Europe's Mars Express spacecraft. The sea is just 5° north of the Martian equator and would be the first discovery of a large body of water beyond the planet's polar ice caps.
"Images from the High Resolution Stereo Camera on Mars Express show raft-like ground structures -- dubbed plates -- that look similar to ice formations near Earth's poles, according to an international team of scientists.
"But the site of the plates, near the equator, means that sunlight should have melted any ice there. So the team suggests that a layer of volcanic ash, perhaps a few centimetres thick, may protect the structures...
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"A huge, frozen sea lies just below the surface of Mars, a team of European scientists has announced.
"Their assessment is based on pictures of the planet's near-equatorial Elysium region that show plated and rutted features across an area 800 by 900km. The team think a catastrophic event flooded the landscape five million years ago and then froze out...
"The water that formed the sea in the southern Elysium, five degree north of the equator, appears to have originated beneath the surface of Mars, erupting from a series of fractures known as the Cerberus Fossae.
"Many of the features seen by Mars Express have also been pictured by the Mars Orbiter Camera on the US Mars Global Surveyor probe. Further data is now required to support the initial observations, but already other scientists think the interpretation is reasonable."
Now, of course, I'm more intrigued by those dome-lookin' landforms... Or are my eyes being tricked by craters?
"Images from the High Resolution Stereo Camera on Mars Express show raft-like ground structures -- dubbed plates -- that look similar to ice formations near Earth's poles, according to an international team of scientists.
"But the site of the plates, near the equator, means that sunlight should have melted any ice there. So the team suggests that a layer of volcanic ash, perhaps a few centimetres thick, may protect the structures...
"A huge, frozen sea lies just below the surface of Mars, a team of European scientists has announced.
"Their assessment is based on pictures of the planet's near-equatorial Elysium region that show plated and rutted features across an area 800 by 900km. The team think a catastrophic event flooded the landscape five million years ago and then froze out...
"The water that formed the sea in the southern Elysium, five degree north of the equator, appears to have originated beneath the surface of Mars, erupting from a series of fractures known as the Cerberus Fossae.
"Many of the features seen by Mars Express have also been pictured by the Mars Orbiter Camera on the US Mars Global Surveyor probe. Further data is now required to support the initial observations, but already other scientists think the interpretation is reasonable."
Now, of course, I'm more intrigued by those dome-lookin' landforms... Or are my eyes being tricked by craters?
Pix of pack ice on Mars
mr damon, 05:50
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