Europe’s Mars Express has captured an enigmatic view of Mars that had not been seen before on the planet’s north pole.
The spacecraft captured massive dunes colliding with several layers of dusty ice covering the pole. Astronomers commanded the Mars Express High-Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) to capture the scenes as the pole came into view.
The terrain on the Red Planet’s north pole has always been fascinating for astronomers. The north pole itself is covered in layers and layers of fine dust and water ice that are several kilometers thick and stretch out for around 1000 kilometers.
The European Space Agency said that layers on the north pole known as Planum Boreum formed as a mix of dust, water ice and frost settled on the Martian ground over time.
“Each layer holds valuable information about Mars’s history, telling the story of how the planet’s climate has changed over the past few million years. In Martian winter, the layers are topped by a thin cap of dry ice (carbon dioxide ice) a couple of meters thick. This cap completely disappears into the atmosphere each Martian summer,” ESA said in a statement.
While the majority of this substance is not apparent in this image, the images shows the initial stages of Planum Boreum on the right side of the frame, where subtle wrinkles indicate the accumulation of material layers. Additionally, the ground has formed distinct steps, prominently displayed in the topographic view below.
The areas with the lowest altitudes are depicted in blue/green, while the highest elevations are represented by shades of red/white/brown.
The left part of this image is dominated by a vast, elongated swathe of rippled sand dunes, stretching out for more than 150 km within this frame alone. This wrinkled, turbulent appearance is highly at odds with the smooth and pristine terrain visible to the right.
Mars Express has been orbiting the Red Planet since 2003. It is imaging Mars’s surface, mapping its minerals, identifying the composition and circulation of its tenuous atmosphere, probing beneath its crust, and exploring how various phenomena interact in the Martian environment.
Shambhu Kumar is a science communicator, making complex scientific topics accessible to all. His articles explore breakthroughs in various scientific disciplines, from space exploration to cutting-edge research.
