Ephemeral Polar Water Ice Discovered On Mars

Here is a "cool" story from our Red planetary sibling Mars:

After decades of studying the climate conditions of Mars, scientists have recently made a breakthrough observation. At the last conference of the American Geophysical Union (AGU) in San Francisco, Dr. Adrian Brown reported on the latest results of the instrument that led his team to find water on Mars. Brown, a research scientist at the SETI Institute who studies climate similarities between Mars and Earth, says that finding water on Mars makes the potential for past or even future life on Mars much better.


Brown's team found a substantial amount of ephemeral (short lived) water ice in the polar regions of Mars. Early models of the s easonal caps of Mars suggested the polar caps would be pure carbon dioxide (CO2), and indeed, we now know that Mars' seasonal polar caps are 99% CO2 ice. Later thinking on the subject predicted that enough water existed in the Martian atmosphere to form a band, or "annulus," of water ice around the polar caps as they receded during springtime. This was subsequently confirmed in the northern hemisphere, but water ice in the southern hemisphere remained elusive and difficult to find until now.

So the chance to have water available for future Mars explorer's looks increasingly good! Perhaps this will spur us to go directly to Mars, instead of detouring through the Moon, as many want to do!! The Moon? Been there, done that, Let's Go To Mars Direct!! Have A Great Weekend!! Sunshine and 21 degrees, it must be Spring time in Iowa!! :)


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