According to data obtained using the radar installed on board the NASA Mars probe, the glaciers in the polar regions of Mars turned out to be very clean
Mars' polar caps are regularly in the spotlight of both the scientific community and the media. For many years, scientists have tried to finally prove or completely disprove the fact that the covers of the poles are composed of ice. But the latest research has finally dispelled all doubts - yes, there is water here, and very clean.
The evidence that Mars' pole caps are composed of ice is constantly being questioned. Scientists have put forward many alternative theories. For example, it was assumed that Martian "ice" was actually formed by mineral deposits. And the seasonal change in the area of cover at the poles gave rise to the theory of the organic origin of the pole caps - some researchers drew a picture of mosses, which either grow or die off.
Spectral analysis has long shown that indeed the northern and southern ends of the red planet are covered with ice formations. At the same time, the northern cap is much larger and more stable than the southern one - in the summer, the South Pole of Mars is almost completely freed from the cover.
Mars' polar ice consists of a double cocktail - 85 percent carbon dioxide and only 15 percent water. Its total volume is 2-3 million cubic kilometers. This value remains stable almost all year round: when it is spring in the northern hemisphere and the ice melts, autumn comes in the southern hemisphere, and the pole begins to grow. According to scientists, if the polar ice is melted, then the water will cover the entire red planet with a layer 11 meters high.
The data obtained from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) radar satellite has allowed scientists to learn a lot about the north polar cap. French astronomers from the International Institute for the Sciences of the Universe have found that it consists of very pure ice - in its volume only 5% of impurities.
In addition, a hypothesis was confirmed that explains the growth of the poles due to carbon dioxide. With sharp temperature changes, natural for the rarefied atmosphere of Mars, CO2 sublimates, instantly passing from a gaseous state to a solid one. The resulting dry ice is the additional volume of the polar caps. During the summer, when surface temperatures rise to -70 degrees Celsius, carbon dioxide is released into the atmosphere.
In addition, MRO radar transmitted data to the ground on at least two prehistoric glaciers hidden under the thickness of the seasonal ice sheet. Drawing analogies with the Earth, scientists suggest that the age of such formations can be a million years, which means that if life existed on Mars, its traces can be found inside the glaciers.
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Also, the study of glaciers can tell a lot of interesting things about the climatic process on Mars and will give an answer to the riddle - how all the water on the red planet gathered exclusively in the polar regions.