REAL LIFE NEWS: MORE ICE DEPOSITS FOUND ON MARS
by Hazed
The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) has showed researchers eight sites on Mars where thick deposits of ice have been exposed in the faces of eroding slopes.
This reveals new information about the internal layered structure of underground ice sheets which had previously been undetected.
The deposits, which would have started as snow long ago, are exposed in cross sections as pure water ice. They are capped by a layer of thick rock and dust, cemented in place by ice.
The sites are in both the northern and southern hemispheres, at latitudes from about 55 to 58 degrees, which is the Earth equivalent of Scotland or the tip of South America.
“The discovery reported today gives us surprising windows where we can see right into these thick underground sheets of ice,” said Shane Byrne of the University of Arizona Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, Tucson, a co-author on today’s report. “It’s like having one of those ant farms where you can see through the glass on the side to learn about what’s usually hidden beneath the ground.”
This may make the ice more accessible than previously thought to future missions.
Source: https://www.nasa.gov/feature/jpl/steep-slopes-on-mars-reveal-structure-of-buried-ice
