Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter: Features


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Spotlight On Mars - Image

Two Kinds of Ice

June 09, 2008

This animated GIF is a combination of two images. The first image shows a closeup view of the two pairs of camera lenses on a shelf. The left-hand pair are larger than the right-hand pair, go to the hazard avoidance camera, and have a larger, fish-eye lens field of view for examining the rover's wheels and immediate surroundings. Its lenses are a clear, almost-turquoise blue. The right-hand pair of lenses are smaller and go to the navigation camera, which takes panoramic, far-field images of surrounding terrain. The first image shows a scientist with sandy hair and sideburns and wearing a white lab coat standing just in front and to the left side of two pairs of camera lenses on a a shelf. His left wrist is attached to a cord that is plugged into an outlet below the shelf to prevent the transfer of static electricity to the instruments.

Mars has two kinds of ice in its polar caps, frozen water and frozen carbon dioxide (dry ice)! To humans, they look the same -- snowy and white -- but a NASA spacecraft "sees" the difference with a special detector.

On Earth, dry ice doesn't form naturally and the main ingredient in our atmosphere (nitrogen) doesn't freeze because it doesn't get cold enough. On Mars, part of the carbon dioxide atmosphere freezes onto the poles each winter. In these images, icy, white Martian cliffs look different to the detector, with dry-ice frost shown in fluorescent green and water ice blue. The green areas are, in effect, frozen pieces of atmosphere.

Scientists are excited about seeing both ices because it helps them track seasonal changes in the polar ice caps. It also helps them explore strange phenomena, like geysers of carbon dioxide gas that erupt when the ices warm in spring.

Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter
Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory


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