Exposure to sunlight creates telltale patterns in the polar ice cap that change over time, potentially providing insight into the climatic history of the Red Planet.
Polar regions
Posted inNews
The Massive Ice Avalanches of Mars
Ice avalanches may have traveled at speeds of up to 80 meters per second.
Posted inEditors' Highlights
Peeling Back the Layers of the Climate of Mars
A new study ties layers in the polar deposits of Mars to changes in climate driven by orbital variations, constraining accumulation rates and further deciphering the climate history of the Red Planet.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
How Do Intergranular Particles Affect the Flow of Ice?
Laboratory experiments that indicate rock particles can impede sliding along grain boundaries in ice may help researchers more accurately determine the composition of planetary ice masses.
Posted inScience Updates
Updates on Understanding Mars’s Recent and Present-Day Climate
Mars Workshop on Amazonian and Present-day Climate; Lakewood, Colorado, 18–22 June 2018
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Evidence of Regional Deposition in Mars’s South Polar Deposits
Shallow Radar correlation of discrete units in one of the Red Planet’s largest ice reservoirs suggests that its material was emplaced as a single, regional deposit.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Evidence of Extensive Ice Deposits Near Mercury’s South Pole
New radar observations and refined illumination maps reveal uneven water ice deposits twice the size of those found around the planet’s north pole, suggesting the source may be a recent comet impact.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
How Mars Got Its Layered North Polar Cap
Orbital wobbling shaped the dome of ice and dust at the planet's north pole.