'We thought it was impossible:' Water frost on Mars discovered near Red Planet's equator
Water frost has been spotted at the equator of Mars for the first time. In this region of the Red Planet, equivalent to its tropics, it was previously believed that it would be impossible for frost to exist.
The discovery could be crucial to modeling where water exists on Mars and how it is exchanged between the Red Planet's atmosphere and its surface. This could be vital for future crewed exploration of Mars.
The water frost was seen by two European Space Agency (ESA) spacecraft, first by the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO), which arrived at Mars in 2016, and then by the Mars Express mission, which has been exploring the Red Planet from orbit since 2003.
The frost sits within the Tharsis area, the largest volcanic region on Mars, which hosts 12 large volcanoes. This includes Olympus Mons, which is not only the tallest volcano on Mars but is also the tallest peak in the solar system at the height of 18.6 miles (29.9 kilometers), making it around 2.5 times the height of Mount Everest, the tallest mountain on Earth.
Adomas Valantinas made the discovery of "forbidden frost" on Mars as a PhD student at the University of Bern, Switzerland.
