Mars’ south pole ice found to be deep and wide
Posted on March 18, 2007
Filed Under Science
Just more proof that there was once life on Mars…
New measurements of Mars’ south polar region indicate extensive frozen water. The polar region contains enough frozen water to cover the whole planet in a liquid layer approximately 11 meters (36 feet) deep. A joint NASA-Italian Space Agency instrument on the European Space Agency’s Mars Express spacecraft provided these data.
This new estimate comes from mapping the thickness of the ice. The Mars Express orbiter’s radar instrument has made more than 300 virtual slices through layered deposits covering the pole to map the ice. The radar sees through icy layers to the lower boundary, which is as deep as 3.7 kilometers (2.3 miles) below the surface.
“The south polar layered deposits of Mars cover an area bigger than Texas. The amount of water they contain has been estimated before, but never with the level of confidence this radar makes possible,” said Jeffrey Plaut of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena Calif. Plaut is co-principal investigator for the radar and lead author of a new report on these findings published in the March 15 online edition of the journal Science.
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2 Responses to “Mars’ south pole ice found to be deep and wide”
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thats really interesting. I hope this doesn’t bring up the whole “life on Mars” thing again. People need to just face facts. Life is only here on Earth. What would be interesting is if they could use that water and create some terra forming. Who knows, maybe one day people will be living easily on Mars
“maybe one day people will be living easily on Mars”
Now, that would be cool.