Using cameras fitted on probes orbiting Mars, researchers have observed morning frost forming inside the calderas of the planet’s volcanoes for the first time.
The equatorial region of Mars is home to the solar system’s tallest volcanoes, which — in addition to standing as tall as three Mount Everests in some cases — likely hide an unexpected frosty phenomenon, a new study has found. The biggest one — Olympus Mons — is 16 miles high and a whopping 374 miles in diameter, making it about 100 times larger than Earth’s biggest volcano, Mauna Loa, in Hawaii. In fact, the entire Hawaiian islands chain would fit inside the Martian volcano, according to NASA.
The team validated its observations with two other instruments: NOMAD, a spectrometer also on board the Trace Gas Orbiter, and HRSC, or high resolution stereo camera, an older camera onboard the ESA Mars Express orbiter, a spacecraft launched in 2003. Serendipitous find Valantinas says that the discovery came with a degree of serendipity, because he was originally looking for carbon dioxide frost but didn’t find any.
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