Related papers: Iron Snow in the Martian Core?
X-ray observations of many clusters of galaxies reveal the presence of edges in surface brightness and temperature, known as "cold fronts". In relaxed clusters with cool cores, these edges have been interpreted as evidence for the…
We extracted a Martian water-ice cloud climatology from OMEGA data covering 7 Martian years (MY 26-32). We derived two products, the Reversed Ice Cloud Index (ICIR) and the Percentage of Cloudy Pixels (PCP), indicating the mean cloud…
A key outstanding question in Martian science is 'are the polar caps gaining or losing mass and what are the implications for past, current and future climate?' To address this question, we use observations from the Compact Reconnaissance…
The Martian brain terrain (MBT), characterized by its unique brain-like morphology, is a potential geological archive for finding hints of paleoclimatic conditions during its formation period. The morphological similarity of MBT to…
In this paper, we analyze water ice occurrences at the surface of Mars using near-infrared observations, and we study their distribution with a climate model. Latitudes between 45{\deg}S and 50{\deg}N are considered. Data from the…
The gullies on Mars were discovered in the year 1999.Since then several hypotheses have appeared trying to explain the presence of these gullies. The main hypotheses are the ones which suggest that some liquid, water or CO2, was responsible…
A recent study by Ramirez et al. (2014) demonstrated that an atmosphere with 1.3-4 bar of CO2 and H2O, in addition to 5-20% H2, could have raised the mean annual and global surface temperature of early Mars above the freezing point of…
The pathway to forming the iron-rich planet Mercury remains mysterious. Mercury's core makes up 70% of the planetary mass, which implies a significant enrichment of iron relative to silicates, while its mantle is strongly depleted in…
We report on mapping of the south polar region of Mars using data from the Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars (CRISM) instrument. Our observations have led to the following discoveries: 1. Water ice is present in the form…
The southern hemisphere of Mars possesses concentrated region of strong crustal magnetic fields (CMF), which generate localized magnetic anomalies that can influence atmospheric dynamics and energy deposition in the Martian…
Observations of water ice clouds and aerosols on Mars can provide important insights into the complexity of the water cycle. Recent observations have indicated an important link between dust activity and the water cycle, as intense dust…
In this Letter, we make use of sophisticated 3D numerical simulations to assess the extent of atmospheric ion and photochemical losses from Mars over time. We demonstrate that the atmospheric ion escape rates were significantly higher (by…
Explaining the evidence for surface liquid water on early Mars has been a challenge for climate modelers, as the sun was ~30% less luminous during the late-Noachian. We propose that the additional greenhouse forcing of CO2-H2…
Polar vortices are common planetary flows that encircle the pole in the middle or high latitudes, and are observed on most of the solar systems' planetary atmospheres. The polar vortices on Earth, Mars, and Titan are dynamically related to…
The climate of early Mars has been hotly debated for decades. Although most investigators believe that the geology indicates the presence of surface water, disagreement has persisted regarding how warm and wet the surface must have been and…
Our understanding of the surface porosity of icy moons and its evolution with depth remains limited, including the precise scale at which ice compaction occurs under self-weight pressure. This parameter is of crucial interest for the…
Reconciling the geology of Mars with models of atmospheric evolution remains a major challenge. Martian geology is characterized by past evidence for episodic surface liquid water, and geochemistry indicating a slow and intermittent…
The habitable zone is the region around a star where standing bodies of liquid water can be stable on a planetary surface. Its width is often assumed to be dictated by the efficiency of the carbonate-silicate cycle, which has maintained…
We investigate the global seasonal variations of near-surface relative humidity and relevant attributes, like temperature and water vapor volume mixing ratio on Mars using calculations from modelled and measurement data. We focus on 2 am…
The Medusae Fossae Formation (MFF) is an enigmatic sedimentary unit near the equator of Mars, with an uncertain formation process and absolute age. Due to the heavily wind-eroded surface, it is difficult to determine the absolute model age…