Three years after finding the coldest spot on Earth, NASA has delivered the first images of the coldest area on the planet Mars. In this area, it can sometimes be 130°C below zero. This place will surely not be colonized by the first explorers of the red planet!
The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) space probe, in orbit since 2006, is one of the three American stations present around the planet Mars, with Mars Odyssey since 2001, as well as Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN (MAVEN) since 2014.
If in 2013, NASA had discovered the coldest point of the Earth located in the east of Antarctica and having established a record at -92 ° C, the coldest point of the red planet was meanwhile immortalized in images by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter’s HiRISE high-resolution camera.
According to astrophysicists from the HiRISE Operations Center at the University of Arizona (USA), the cold season is synonymous with temperatures sometimes reaching -130°C in this area identified as the South Pole of Mars. The latter is essentially covered with dry ice which accumulates by falling like snow on a very regular basis.
(Credits: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona)
Not long ago, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter had already made it possible to identify sedimentary strata of lacustrine origin, leading to the strong belief that a climate favorable to liquid water had settled on the planet Mars for a long time 3.8 years ago. billions of years. The probe had favored the observation of thick sedimentary plains of more than 300 meters and extended over tens of kilometers.
When is the next discovery?
Sources: Le Figaro – Sputnik – Engineering techniques