William Atkins
Saturday, 26 September 2009 19:53
Science -
Space
Page 2 of 3
The images show exposed, pure water ice that appears to disappear, apparently evaporating into the Martian atmosphere. The scientists contend that the water ice is found in the shallow subsurface, less than three meters (eight feet) into the soil.
The September 24, 2009 NASA media brief
Meteorite Impacts Expose Ice on Mars, states,
“Pictures of the impact sites taken by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter show that frozen water may be available to explorers of the Red Planet at lower latitudes than previously thought.”
Shane Byrne (Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, University of Arizona, Tucson, and a member of the HiRISE camera team) stated within the NASA article
"This ice is a relic of a more humid climate from perhaps just several thousand years ago."
The discovery of water ice at these new impact crater locations has been published in the September 25, 2009 issue of the journal
Science.
The Science article, by its eighteen-member team, is entitled “
Distribution of Mid-Latitude Ground Ice on Mars from New Impact Craters.”
Its abstract states,
“New impact craters at five sites in the martian mid-latitudes excavated material from depths of decimeters that has a brightness and color indicative of water ice.”
That is, water ice was found within these newly formed impact craters after impacts of meteors expelled Martian materials from the site.
Page three concludes.
