Water Ice on Mars

NASA announced a coupla days ago that they have found proof that the white stuff they’ve seen a lot of in pics of Mars is in fact ice. And not just any ice — water ice. H2O, babycakes. Not salt or… crack or… ground-up mints, which is what I personally bet…

A collection of crumblike stuff the Phoenix Mars Lander photographed one day was absent from photos a few days later, hinting that the bright chunks had disappeared through a process similar to evaporation. What’s more, the ice may have come from a layer beneath the soil that extends to the horizon, scientists reported during a June 20 press briefing…

The scientists are certain the chunks are ice because, in part, of the unique temperature and pressure of the Martian atmosphere. The water ice could not have blown away or been made of carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide ice, or dry ice, would sublimate — go from solid to gas — much faster than the water ice appears to have evaporated in the thin Martian air.

View the complete report here.

– johnamor