Scientists have found irrefutable evidence that there was a period of glaciers on Mars. The polar caps of Mars, taken by radar images, show that about 375 thousand years ago, the end of the ice age occurred on the red planet, from which the planet is gradually emerging today.
Isaac Smith of the Southeast Institute for Research in the United States states that the climate on Mars changes much more than on Earth, because its axis of rotation "fluctuates" much more, unlike our planet. From this we can conclude that in the past, Mars had a different appearance than we can observe today.
After analyzing the data obtained using the instruments of the MRO probe, while studying the deposits of water ice in the northern part of Mars, Smith, together with his colleagues, revealed that an ice age passed on the red planet in the recent historical past. Today it is “thawing” a little.
As the scientists explained, the onset of ice ages does not occur when it is cold at the poles, but on the contrary, when warming occurs, because only a relatively warm climate contributes to the formation of mobile ice deposits and their "movement" to the middle latitudes of the planet. During the interglacial period, cold reigns on the planet, which contributes to an increase in the mass and volume of ice deposits due to water evaporating in mid-latitudes.
The approach of the ice in the "hot" stages and their retreat into the "cold", according to Smith, must leave impressions on the surface of the red planet, which will not hide from optical instruments and radars. Among other things, traces of approaching and evading glaciers can be found in the ice at the Pole, simply by calculating the rate due to which they accumulate or accumulate.
After reviewing and studying many MRO radar images and photographs that were obtained by probes from the Viking category more than 35 years ago, the authors of the article concluded that Mars in the relatively recent past was in the "captivity" of the ice period.
During the period of retreating glaciers, on the surface of the red planet, according to scientists, more than 87 thousand cubic kilometers of water ice have accumulated. This volume of water would be enough to cover the entire surface of Mars to a height of 60 centimeters. The very fact of such a conclusion became news to planetary scientists, they expected to see ice 3 times less than the data collected from the MRO instruments showed.
According to Smith, the ice still melts today. This conclusion is confirmed by the imprints of the movement of water along the plane of Mars. The planetologist says that if the observations are not interrupted, it will be possible to understand what kind of Mars will take in the near future, and how all this will affect its permissible habitability.
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