National Geographic News, Reporting Your World Daily

Monday, November 23, 2009

Photo: Weird Mars Deposits Could Be Vast "Ice Cap" at Equator


Email to a Friend	<< Back to Full Story

A topographic image of the Martian equator shows the Medusae Fossae Formation along the divide between the planet's highlands and lowlands.

New radar data from the hilly formation show that it is covered with unusual sediments that scientists say could be a huge amount of water ice—or just dry, low-density deposits.

Image courtesy ESA/ASI/NASA/Univ. of Rome/JPL/Smithsonian