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| NASA |
Mars has many
similarities to Earth like volcanoes, canyons, craters and water. Now, NASA
researchers have added ice ages as another similarity.
This was confirmed
after seeing the radargrams taken from NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter
(MRO). Now, scientists have physical measurements suggesting that Mars is
actually just now emerging from an ice age that ended 400,000 years ago.
According to the team,
researchers have previously predicted that the Red Planet actually experienced
ice ages in the past yet lacking actual evidence to back them up.
The team now was able
to use the MRO’s Shallow Subsurface Radar (SHARD) to take a look inside the
planet’s ice caps, giving them a glimpse into its past climate shifts.
Based on the images,
researchers also noticed that there is a line in the ice that indicates a
boundary. Above the boundary is a layer of fresher ice that is completely
uniform, which means it accumulate quickly compared to the lower layers under
the ‘boundary line’.
Ice ages happen to
Mars when it starts to tilt, making its poles warmer than normal because they’re
getting more sunlight. It causes water vapor to travel from the decreasing
poles towards the equator, forming glaciers and ice formations. Then, when the
tilt moves back, the poles freeze quickly and the ice near the equator melts.
Since the poles shrink
quickly at the beginning of the ice and then reforms just as fast afterwards,
it creates a layer of fresher ice. Since the ice is still growing, it likely
means that Mars is still recovering from this event that happened 400,000 years
ago based on the gathered evidence.
Source: Science Alert
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