water ice tagged posts

NASA’s Treasure Map for Water Ice on Mars

This rainbow-colored map shows underground water ice on Mars. Cool colors represent less than one foot (30 centimeters) below the surface; warm colors are over two feet (60 centimeters) deep. Sprawling black zones on the map represent areas where a landing spacecraft would sink into fine dust. The outlined box represents the ideal region to send astronauts for them to be able to dig up water ice.

NASA has big plans for returning astronauts to the Moon in 2024, a stepping stone on the path to sending humans to Mars. But where should the first people on the Red Planet land?

A new paper published in Geophysical Research Letters will help by providing a map of water ice believed to be as little as an inch (2.5 centimeters) below the surface.

Water ice will be a key consideration fo...

Read More

Landslides on Ceres reflect Hidden ice

1. Type II features are the most common of Ceres’ landslides and look similar to deposits left by avalanches on Earth. This one also looks similar to TV's Bart Simpson. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDA, taken by Dawn Framing Camera 2. Type I landslides on Ceres are relatively round, large and have thick "toes" at their ends. They look similar to rock glaciers and icy landslides in Earth’s arctic. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDA, taken by Dawn Framing Camera 3. Ceres' Type III features appear to form when some of the ice is melted during impact events. These landslides at low latitudes are always found coming from large-impact craters. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDA, taken by Dawn Framing Camera 4. Ceres

1. Type II features are the most common of Ceres’ landslides and look similar to deposits left by avalanches on Earth. This one also looks similar to TV’s Bart Simpson. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDA, taken by Dawn Framing Camera
2. Type I landslides on Ceres are relatively round, large and have thick “toes” at their ends. They look similar to rock glaciers and icy landslides in Earth’s arctic. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDA, taken by Dawn Framing Camera
3. Ceres’ Type III features appear to form when some of the ice is melted during impact events. These landslides at low latitudes are always found coming from large-impact craters. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDA, taken by Dawn Framing Camera
4. Ceres

Massive landslides, similar to those found on Earth, are...

Read More

Ceres: Water Ice in Eternal Polar Night

#Image1: View of the North Pole: The colours show the varying height of Ceres' landscape. The numbers refer to ten craters where the Framing Cameras built in Göttingen at the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research have discovered water ice. © Nature Astronomy #Image2: Crater No. 1, whose interior has a large region in permanent darkness (a). In the weak scattered light, the framing cameras can make out bright deposits of ice (b). Crater No. 2 with its dark region is shown in Figures (c) to (e). The ice shown in (d) extends into the region with direct illumination (e). © Nature Astronomy

#Image1: View of the North Pole: The colours show the varying height of Ceres’ landscape. The numbers refer to ten craters where the Framing Cameras built in Göttingen at the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research have discovered water ice. © Nature Astronomy
#Image2: Crater No. 1, whose interior has a large region in permanent darkness (a). In the weak scattered light, the framing cameras can make out bright deposits of ice (b). Crater No. 2 with its dark region is shown in Figures (c) to (e). The ice shown in (d) extends into the region with direct illumination (e). © Nature Astronomy

The American Dawn space probe has been orbiting the asteroid Ceres between Mars and Jupiter since March 2015...

Read More

Dawn maps Ceres Craters where Ice can accumulate

At the poles of Ceres, scientists have found craters that are permanently in shadow (indicated by blue markings). Such craters are called "cold traps" if they remain below about minus 240 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 151 degrees Celsius). These shadowed craters may have been collecting ice for billions of years because they are so cold. This image was created using data from NASA's Dawn spacecraft. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Goddard

At the poles of Ceres, scientists have found craters that are permanently in shadow (indicated by blue markings). Such craters are called “cold traps” if they remain below about minus 240 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 151 degrees Celsius). These shadowed craters may have been collecting ice for billions of years because they are so cold. This image was created using data from NASA’s Dawn spacecraft. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Goddard

Scientists with NASA’s Dawn mission have identified permanently shadowed regions on the dwarf planet Ceres. Most of these areas likely have been cold enough to trap water ice for a billion years, suggesting that ice deposits could exist there now. “The conditions on Ceres are right for accumulating deposits of water ice,” said N Schorghofer...

Read More