MRO photographed dry ice on Mars

The MRO mission support team has published an image of a crater located in the Southern Hemisphere of Mars. Its slope is covered with dry ice.

The slope of the Martian crater is covered with dry ice. Source: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona

One of the most famous attractions of Mars is its polar caps. They consist of two layers. At the bottom there are deposits stretching for hundreds of meters from a mixture of water ice and dust. At the top, there is a layer of dry ice, which is visually observed as a polar cap.

Dry ice is formed as a result of the freezing of carbon dioxide from the Martian atmosphere. In the middle of winter, polar caps can occupy the surface up to 50° in latitude. With the onset of summer, dry ice begins to sublimate, and the visible size of the cap decreases.

However, in some cases, dry ice deposits can form on Mars much closer to the equator. Most often this happens on the slopes facing the pole, which receive less sunlight. The MRO image just demonstrates a similar case. It captures a crater located at 37° south latitude. In the photo, you can see that the south-facing slope is covered with characteristic spots. This is carbon dioxide frost.

Recall that the MRO recently photographed the Perseverance rover and the Ingenuity helicopter drone.

According to https://www.nasa.gov

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