Frost discovered on Mars

American and European astronomers have studied images from the cameras of the European mission Mars Express and the Russian-European probe ExoMars-TGO and have discovered frost in the craters of volcanoes on Mars. This is reported by The Guardian.

The results of the study were published in the journal Nature Geoscience. The frost layer was found on the Olympus, Arsia, and Ascraeus mountains. These mountains are located in the Tharsis province. According to the researchers, the landscape features of the province suggest that Mars was once a much wetter and possibly habitable planet with lakes and rivers.

Although the layer of frost was thinner than a human hair, it covered large areas of the planet. Scientists have calculated that during the coldest periods on Mars, up to 150 thousand tons of water accumulate on the mountain tops.

"Understanding the current water cycle on Mars in the atmosphere and at the surface will be important for future exploration missions, including human expeditions, where water will be a key resource," said John Bridges, professor of planetary science at the University of Leicester.

As The Guardian notes, scientists previously believed that frost formation on the volcanoes' summits in the Tharsis province was unlikely, since sunlight and Mars' thin atmosphere maintain fairly high daytime temperatures both at the summits and on the planet's surface.

"What we see could be a trace of past Martian climate. It could be related to atmospheric and climatic processes that occurred earlier in Mars' history, perhaps millions of years ago," said Adomas Valantinas, a research fellow at Brown University.

The researchers specified that the frost layer evaporates several hours after sunrise. In addition, scientists did not detect frost in the images during the Martian summer.

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