Our ExoMars and Mars Express missions have spotted water frost for the first time on top of the Tharsis volcanoes: the tallest volcanoes not only on Mars but in the Solar System.
It was detected near Mars’s equator, a part of the planet where it was thought impossible for frost to exist.
The researchers propose that air circulates in a peculiar way above Tharsis; this creates a unique microclimate within the calderas of the volcanoes there that allows patches of frost to form.
🎥 ESA – European Space Agency
📸 ESA/TGO/CaSSIS
📸 ESA/DLR/FU Berlin
📸 NASA/MGS/MOLA Science Team, FU Berlin
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