SNAPS of Mars in snow are quite rare, given how hard they are to capture.
But they give us a glimpse of what a future Mars colony might enjoy – or endure – during the winter holidays.
The average temperature on the Red Planet is roughly -65°C (-85°F), and plunges as low as -123°C (-190°F) at the poles in wintertime.
Fortunately, winter only comes around once every Martian year – which is two years on Earth.
While Martian frost is much more common, the planet does see snow.
Snow falls and settles at Mars’ north and south poles, usually at night under extremely frigid conditions and under thick cloud cover.
Although you wouldn’t want to venture too close to the planet’s poles, otherwise you’ll be battling against wildly cold temperatures and katabatic winds.
While no region will see more than a few feet of snow, “enough falls that you could snowshoe across it,” according Sylvain Piqueux, a Mars scientist at Nasa’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
He added: “If you were looking for skiing, though, you’d have to go into a crater or cliffside, where snow could build up on a sloped surface.”
Mars is home to some mind-blowing landscapes.
Not least the Korolev crater, which has a 50-mile-wide and one-mile-thick sheet of ice at the bottom.
The thick wedge of ice cover lasts all year – meaning Korolev could become a go-to destination for future astro ice skaters.
Is it real snow?
There are two types of snow on Mars.
The first is Earth-like snow made of water ice.
The second consists of carbon dioxide, or dry ice.
The Martian air is so thin – over 100 times thinner than Earth’s – water-based snow becomes a gas before it even touches the ground.
Whereas dry ice snow actually reaches the surface and settles.
Mars snow is unique in that it is cube-shaped, according to Piqueux.
And instead of falling in a flurry, it descends almost like mist.
“Because carbon dioxide ice has a symmetry of four, we know dry-ice snowflakes would be cube-shaped,” said Piqueux.
“Thanks to the Mars Climate Sounder, we can tell these snowflakes would be smaller than the width of a human hair.”
Researchers have calculated that the dry ice snow particles on Mars are roughly the size of a human red blood cell.
While frost on Mars was first discovered in the 1970s by Nasa’s Viking landers, the US space agency only discovered actual snow in 2003.
Using a special tool that can detect light invisible to the human eye, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter spotted carbon dioxide snow falling to the ground.
Then in 2008, Nasa’s Phoenix lander dropped down within 1,000miles of the north pole and detected water-ice snow falling to the surface with a laser instrument.
No images of snow falling on Mars have ever been captured.
Cameras on orbiting spacecraft can’t peer deep enough through clouds to catch nighttime snowfall.
And rovers on the surface simply cannot survive the extreme cold.
That said, Nasa has been able to provide stunning shots of the Red Planet painted a winter wonderland nonetheless – but only once the snow has settled.
How long does it take to get to Mars?
It’s not that short of a trip…
- There’s an immense distance between Earth and Mars, which means any trip to the red planet will take a very long time
- It’s also made more complicated by the fact that the distance is constantly changing as the two planets rotate around the sun
- The closest that the Earth and Mars would ever be is a distance of 33.9million miles – that’s 9,800 times the distance between London and New York
- That’s really rare though: the more useful distance is the average, which is 140million miles
- Scientists on Earth have already launched a whole bunch of spacecraft to (or near) Mars, so we have a rough idea of how long it takes with current technology
- Historically, the trip has taken anywhere from 128 to 333 days – admittedly a huge length of time for humans to be on board a cramped spacecraft.
