Nasa revealed an astonishing image of the Mars’ surface, naming it the coolest Mars landscape. The image actually shows the coldest area on the Mars – the ice patterns at the polar ice caps or the planet’s South Pole.
Mars is well-known by its unusual, weird, almost alien landscapes, which are absolutely unfamiliar to Earthlings. Mars has many landscapes similar to Earth’s landscapes, such as volcanos, glaciers, cliffs and valleys, but it also has an exotic side too, NASA said.
An exotic and amazing landscape, captured a few days ago, is made of circular pits at the South Pole. The Red Planet’s South Pole is a place of dry ice (frozen carbon dioxide), which does not occur naturally on our planet. The circular pits are actually holes in this dry ice layer that expand by a few meters each Martian year.
The ice patterns on Mars polar cap. The coolest Mars landscape, according to NASA. Credits: NASA
“New dry ice is constantly being added to this landscape by freezing directly out of the carbon dioxide atmosphere or falling as snow. Freezing out the atmosphere like this limits how cold the surface can get to the frost point at -130 degrees Celsius (-200 F). Nowhere on Mars can ever get any colder this, making this the coolest landscape on Earth and Mars combined”, NASA explains.
NASA has been exploring the Mars for over 40 years. The Mars Exploration Program (MEP), a long-term effort to explore the planet Mars, has made use of spacecraft, landers, and Mars rovers to explore the possibilities of life on Mars, as well as the planet’s climate and natural resources.
This view from the Mast Camera (Mastcam) on NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover shows sloping buttes and layered outcrops within the “Murray Buttes” region on lower Mount Sharp. Credits: NASA