A touch of frost found on Mars

Early morning frost has been detected on the peaks of massive volcanoes on Mars, an unexpected discovery about the dispersal of water on Mars.

Frost on the Olympus Mons volcano on Mars. Picture: AFP/ESA/ Adomas Valantinas

Early morning frost has been detected on the peaks of massive volcanoes on Mars, an unexpected discovery about the dispersal of water on Mars that could one day prove essential for human exploration.

The frost was spotted in images taken by the European Space Agency’s Trace Gas Orbiter, ­according to a study published in the Nature Geoscience journal.

The immense volcanoes are in the Tharsis plateau, an elevated region nearly 5000km wide near the Martian equator.

The volcanoes have been extinct for millions of years. Among them is the largest volcano in the solar system, Olympus Mons, which is almost three times taller than Mt Everest.

The discovery came by chance.

“We thought it was impossible for frost to form around Mars’s equator,” lead study author ­Adomas Valantinas said.

Plenty of sunshine and a thin atmosphere mean the temperature is relatively warm up there, “unlike what we see on Earth, where you might expect to see frosty peaks”, the researcher at America’s Brown University said.

There is also little water in the atmosphere near the Martian equator, making condensation less likely.

“Other space probes have observed frost but in wetter regions – notably the northern plains,” study co-author Frederic Schmidt of Paris-Saclay University said.

The Trace Gas Orbiter, which has been orbiting Mars since 2018, was able to take images when the first rays of the sun crossed over the tops of the volcanoes.

“We saw a shiny, blue deposit there, a particular texture that we only see in the early morning and during the cold seasons,” Professor Schmidt said.

The layer of the ice is only the thickness of a hair – and it does not last long. But there is about 150,000 tonnes of water – equivalent to 60 Olympic swimming pools – in the daily frost at the summits of volcanoes Olympus Mons, Arsia Mons, Ascraeus Mons and Ceraunius Tholus.

Modelling how these frosts form “could allow scientists to ­reveal more of Mars’s remaining secrets, including where water ­exists and how it moves between reservoirs”, the space agency said.

This may prove crucial for planned missions that could see humans set foot on Martian soil.

AFP