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Spring on Mars look: ESA images reveal how violent geysers erupt at the frozen north pole of the planet and cause ice avalanches
- The images were taken by the ship ESA / Roscosmos ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter
- They show the dunes that are near the north and south polar regions of Mars
- These features are covered with black streaks caused by gas and sand geysers
- The gas comes from the carbon dioxide frost that is melted by the Martian spring
Superb images of the surface of Mars reveal how frozen planet ice ice poles are destroyed by geysers erupting in gas and sand.
This explosive phenomenon creates distinctive black streaks on the dune faces visible on images published by the European Space Agency (ESA).
The shots were captured in the polar regions of Mars by the camera's stereoscopic and color surface imaging system (or CaSSIS) on the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter organizer.
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Spring near the Mars poles is heralded by ice cracking and the eruption of geysers. In the photo, the remains of these eruptions can be seen as distinctive black streaks on the faces of the dunes, seen here north of Mars on September 16, 2019.
For the polar regions of the red planet, winter brings a thin layer of carbon dioxide ice that covers the surface of the ground.
As the cold season progresses, the ice grains in this layer grow sufficiently to make the ice almost transparent.
When spring arrives, however, this frozen layer goes directly from the ice to the gazelle – bypassing a liquid phase in a phenomenon called "sublimation" by the experts.
However, among the dune fields of Mars, this seasonal defrosting occurs from the bottom of the ice, thanks to the almost transparent light of the frost letter to warm the surface of the dunes underneath.
The carbon dioxide is trapped between the sand underneath and the remaining ice above, gradually increasing the pressure.
When this ice cracks, the gas is released, spitting upward and throwing sand with it, generating the dark spots and streaks visible on the CaSSIS images.
The shots were captured in the polar regions of Mars by the CaSSIS camera from the ExoMars Tracer Gas Orbiter. In the photo, dunes seen near the Ulyxis Rupes cliff-like structure, in the southern polar region of the red planet, August 24, 2018
The CaSSIS image from the north of Mars also shows how the crescent-shaped "barchan" dunes that we see on the right of the plane meet and merge with what the experts call "barchanoid edges", visible to the left of the plane. l & # 39; image.
The dunes of Barchan – which are also found in many deserts of the Earth – are characterized by their two "horns" that point in the direction of the wind.
"The passage from the barchanoid dunes to barchanoids tells us that the secondary winds also play a role in the formation of the dune field," wrote an ESA spokesman on their website.
"The dunes have different characteristic forms on Mars, as on Earth, providing clues to the direction of the prevailing winds," they added.
"Their monitoring over time also provides us with a natural laboratory for studying the evolution of dunes and how sediments are transported around the planet."
Images – such as these – and other data collected by the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter will be discussed at the European Congress of Planetary Science, to be held in Geneva, Switzerland, from September 15-20.
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