Bright Ice Patch On Mars Crater

Live Science

A crater on Mars has a bright patch of ice. It's the second time in over a decade that the crater and ice has been observed by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.  Credit: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona

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00:00The HiRISE and Context Camera instruments on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter

00:03have worked together to image many new impact craters that have formed within the last few years.

00:08At middle and high latitudes, these craters often dig up ice,

00:12which is initially bright and then fades away as it sublimates.

00:16A small crater here was first seen by HiRISE in 2010,

00:20and some of the ice is still bright over a decade later.

00:23A theory suggests that many millimeters of ice should have been lost in that time.

00:28Since we can still see the ice, it must be very clean, without much dust or debris mixed in.

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