For decades, scientists have been fascinated by the idea that Mars may have once supported life.
Recent discoveries keep fueling this hope. NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) captured stunning images of sand dunes in the northern hemisphere of Mars, covered in a layer of frost, according to WP.
The photos, taken by the High-Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera in September 2022, reveal intriguing details about the planet’s climate history.
The frost on these dunes is not made of water ice, as we see on Earth, but carbon dioxide. This type of ice forms during the Martian winter when temperatures plummet.
Researchers believe that studying how this frost forms, melts, and interacts with the surface can offer new insights into Mars’s past.
If the Red Planet ever had conditions suitable for liquid water, it might also have been capable of supporting microbial life.
The carbon dioxide frost appears to be tied to Mars’s tilt relative to the Sun. When the planet tilts more steeply, the carbon dioxide ice can sublimate, turning into gas.
This process thickens the planet’s atmosphere. A denser atmosphere could have helped stabilize liquid water on Mars’s surface for extended periods.
By examining these processes, scientists hope to piece together the planet’s climatic puzzle and determine if water existed long enough to support life.
The dunes themselves behave in ways similar to Earth’s. Winds shape them, moving sand particles from one location to another.
However, during the Martian winter, the frost halts this movement by freezing the dunes in place until warmer spring temperatures allow them to shift again.
This interaction between frost and sand movement offers clues about the planet’s current and historical climate conditions.
NASA’s findings suggest that if Mars had periods of stable, liquid water, it might have supported microbial life.
Scientists are now working to better understand these frost cycles and their effects on Mars’s geology.
These discoveries keep hope alive that one day, we might find evidence of life—past or even present—on the Red Planet.
