Mars may look like a dry, barren place, but the Red Planet turns into an otherworldly wonderland during the winter, according to a new video released by NASA.
And in late winter in Mars' northern hemisphere, the Perseverance rover and Ingenuity helicopter are exploring an ancient river delta that fed from Jezero Crater billions of years ago.
And it is dust that also leads to the formation of the weather of Mars, and dust usually heralds the advent of winter, but the planet is no stranger to snow, ice and frost, and at the poles of Mars, the temperature can drop to minus 190 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 123 degrees Celsius).
There are two types of ice on Mars, one of which is the kind found on Earth, which consists of frozen water. The other type of Martian snow relies on carbon dioxide, or dry ice, and can land on the surface. A few feet of snow tend to fall on the surface of Mars in its flat areas, near the poles.
"There is enough snowfall that you can snowshoe through it, and if you're looking to ski, you'll have to go into a hole or a slope, where snow can accumulate," Mars scientist Sylvain Becqueux said in a statement from NASA. on a sloped surface.
So far, no orbiters or rovers have been able to see snowfall on the Red Planet, because the weather phenomenon only occurs at the poles under cloud cover at night. Cameras on orbiters cannot see through clouds.
However, the Mars Climate Sounder, on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, can detect light that is invisible to the human eye, and has detected carbon dioxide snowfall at the poles of Mars. The Phoenix probe, which arrived at Mars in 2008, used one of its laser instruments to detect water ice snow from about 1,000 miles (1,609 kilometers) from Mars' north pole.
Thanks to photographers, we know that snowflakes on Earth are unique and have six sides, and under a microscope, Martian snowflakes likely look a little different.
"Thanks to the Mars Climate Sounder, we can say that these snowflakes will be smaller than the thickness of a human hair," Becchio said.
Ice and carbon dioxide form on the surface of Mars, and it can occur far from the poles. The Odyssey rover (which entered Mars orbit in 2001) saw frost forming and turning into gas in sunlight, while the Viking rover spotted ice frost on Mars when it arrived in the 1970s.
At the end of winter, the accumulated ice can melt and turn into a gas, creating unique shapes, NASA scientists reported, with Swiss cheese, fried eggs, spiders and other unusual formations.
And the seasons on Mars last longer, because the planet's elliptical orbit around the sun means that one Martian year is equal to 687 days, or nearly two years on Earth.