Huge Water Ice Deposits At Mars Equator Has Discovered By ESA Orbiter
The European Space Agency – ESA orbiter has found enough water to cover Mars in an ocean between 4.9 and 8.9 feet (1.5 and 2.7 meters) deep, buried in the form of dusty ice beneath the planet's equator. This is an amazing discovery, which could improve future prospects for human Mars settlement.
This map shows the estimated amount of ice within the mounds that form the Medusae Fossae Formation (MFF) consists of a series of wind-sculpted deposits measuring hundreds of kilometers across and several kilometers high, indicating that the ice-rich deposits are up to 3000m thick. (Image credit: Planetary Science Institute/Smithsonian Institution). The finding was made by ESA's Mars Express mission, a veteran spacecraft that has been engaged in science operations around Mars for 20 years now. While it's not the first time that evidence for ice has been found near the Red Planet's equator, this new discovery is by far the largest amount of water ice detected there so far and appears to match previous discoveries of frozen water on Mars.