miércoles, 14 de diciembre de 2016


South Pole on Mars
Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona

Residual South Polar Cap Deposits

This image shows one of these exotic locales at the South Pole. The polar cap is made from carbon dioxide (dry ice). The circular pits are holes in this dry ice layer that expand by a few meters each Martian year.

New dry ice is constantly being added to this landscape by freezing directly out of the carbon dioxide atmosphere or falling as snow. Freezing out the atmosphere like this limits how cold the surface can get to the frost point at -130º C (-200º F). 

Nowhere on Mars can ever get any colder this, making this this coolest landscape on Earth and Mars combined.