Fly over the North Pole of Mars

This superb animation simulates an overview of the North Pole of Mars using images from the stereoscopic HRSC camera, installed on Mars Express, orbiting the Red Planet since December 2003. The spiral shape of the ice cap, the work of Aeolus, is hindered by the huge, dark canyon Chasma Boreale, which can be seen in the middle of the video.

Let's go for a tour of the North Pole of Mars! This video, produced by the Group of Planetary Sciences and Remote Sensing at the Free University of Berlin, was constructed from images collected by the HRSC camera (High Resolution Stereo Camera) of the European probe Mars Express, during 32 visits between 2004 and 2010. She invites us to get to know this region of the Red Planet better.

According to research combined with altitude measurements made by the MGS probe (Mars Global Surveyor) of the Nasa, the ice thickness is on average one kilometer but in places reaches three kilometers. During each winter (on Mars, the seasons last six months), approximately one meter of ice accumulates. In this season, the thermometer goes down to -120 ° C (which is hotter than the southern cap). In summer, temperatures rise to -50 ° C.

A spiral cap cut by a huge canyon

What is striking is the spiral shape of this white cap spread over a million km2. For billions of years, winds that wind there because of the Coriolis force have indeed dug the mounds laden with ice and dry ice. These grooves have become canyons darkened by the deposits of dust.

At 55e second, we come in sight of the greatest of all: Chasma Boreale, a notch 500 km wide, 100 km long and 2 km deep. This canyon, believe the researchers, must be prior to the spiraling of the layers of ice.

© ESA, DLR, FU Berlin, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO

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