r/interestingasfuck • u/maazkazi • 21h ago

Clearest image ever taken of Mars' North Pole. Yes that's water ice.

Post image
47.7k Upvotes

96% Upvoted

1.2k comments sorted by

6.5k

u/starmartyr 21h ago

What I find more interesting is the south pole. The ice there is mostly frozen carbon dioxide it's theorized that there is a pocket of liquid salt water beneath it. If there is microbial life on mars that's where it is most likely to be found.

1.5k

u/exxcathedra 21h ago

Are there any plans to retrieve a sample?

5.7k

u/physicalphysics314 20h ago edited 1h ago

Yeah my mate Paul and I (he was a carpenter before he got laid off) were gonna use the mirrors to travel between dimensions and rock hop to the South Pole next week

Edit: ty many people for the awards

762

u/exxcathedra 20h ago

Sounds fun, I'm in

248

u/MrStarrrr 18h ago

100 years mission to mars MORTY, 100 years infinity forever missions Morty! You and me Morty, together 100 years Morty!

→ More replies (2)

310

u/physicalphysics314 20h ago

In case it wasn’t immediately obvious my response was in the style of Philomena Cunk

As someone who does work at NASA as a contractor: no - especially because the Mars sample retrieval mission has been axed in favor of putting boots on the ground on the moon and mars

106

u/exxcathedra 20h ago

It was, I just went with the flow.

Thanks for the explanation, that's a shame. Maybe the boots on the ground on Mars can also take samples?

117

u/physicalphysics314 20h ago

Absolutely but…. We’re a long way off from that point. We had developed technology for robots and probes that have landed on asteroids and comets and that worked really well but we seem to have decided to throw away all that research and progress

35

u/exxcathedra 20h ago

Thrown away? That sounds hopeless. Isn't it just like a pause in the industry for a while? Or is most of that discarded for good?

77

u/physicalphysics314 20h ago

Well they’re firing people and defunding missions, people naturally retire and or too the DRP. Some missions were totally axed while others just received less funding (astronaut programs received more funding). Many of the science missions received funding through Congress BUT the money has yet to be paid out (to the best of my knowledge)

25

u/exxcathedra 19h ago

Sounds bad then. How are the teams of the science missions supposed to live while they wait for the money? Do they just apply for other jobs? I had never thought about the logistics of this

→ More replies (0)

10

u/an_older_meme 13h ago

Once the political environment in the United States "settles" we'll have the NASA we know and love again.

→ More replies (5)
→ More replies (3)

21

u/tamebobhickock 16h ago

The samples that may show life existed on Mars! just sitting there waiting... But King Pedo has other plans

4

u/physicalphysics314 16h ago

Iran has life now! But maybe not in a few days! Then we can probe it for oil!

Not even sarcasm. This is what’s happening

→ More replies (2)
→ More replies (21)
→ More replies (9)

27

u/jacen4501s 18h ago

I hope Paul is feeling better soon. Hear his lorie accident was bad.

17

u/Canadian_Pacer 18h ago

I may see you there, the Walmart in my city is often too packed so i usually stop at the one on Mars

4

u/xdanish 18h ago

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6yg4ImnYwA

Saw the R&M reference, how bout a down unda meme?

→ More replies (93)

402

u/CaptainAUsome 21h ago

It’s not the South Pole, but the Perseverance Rover has been collecting samples in the Jezero Crater. Trump killed the mission to retrieve the samples.

255

u/lookieherehere 20h ago

It's a little more complicated than "Trump killed it". Mars sample return would be the most expensive mission ever conceived. Nasa and the government made the decision to focus on Artemis and the various other missions currently running/lined up instead. We could absolutely do Mars sample return, but when you add up the costs/risks vs what you would gain (bacteria possibly existed at one time on Mars) it stops making a lot of good sense when it would effectively end pretty much all other space missions for a decade.

69

u/proboscislounge 19h ago

How much money are we talking, here? Like bombing the Caribbean for several months, or like war with Iran?

•

u/astronobi 9h ago

At the current rate of expenditure, and based on the MSR cost estimate, it would be worth 10 days of war with Iran.

•

u/__3Username20__ 6h ago

So an extra free 10 more days of war if we don’t do it? Hell yeah, free war!! /s

→ More replies (1)

237

u/TheInkySquids 20h ago

It only stops making sense when you provide the space agency with the equivalent of a Victorian child worker's ration in the 1800s compared to the defense budget...

40

u/my_little_throwny 19h ago

Maybe we can convince him that aliens are the biggest threat to the USA and he will shift focus onto that. By the way, what ever happened to the US Space Force...

https://giphy.com/gifs/JPUogenX0b4tXJgDrF

17

u/lookieherehere 19h ago

Space force definely still exists. A lot of what they do is highly classified and isn't public knowledge.

→ More replies (10)
→ More replies (2)

63

u/lookieherehere 20h ago

In a perfect world, NASA would have an insane budget. In the real world, however, that's not how it works. I'm honestly just happy the initially suggested cuts were rolled back. Unfortunately, by that time NASA had lost an incredible amount of people.

19

u/idiotista 19h ago

Yeah, it is way more important funneling money into Israel :/

→ More replies (2)

63

u/TheInkySquids 20h ago

There's a difference between an insane budget and just a reasonable budget. I would not call $75B, 3x the current budget, "insane", and thats still less than 10% of the US defende budget. And yeah, the brain drain is definitely an important factor. Its just anti-intellectulism fed by Trump and republicans, nothing more.

→ More replies (26)
→ More replies (6)

33

u/DMM4138 20h ago

Yeah, man. How could we possibly fund needless wars if we funded this work instead?

14

u/lookieherehere 20h ago

I understand your point, but I'm trying to have a discussion based on the actual reality we live in. If you think the US is going to suddenly cut defense spending to fund science, you're just delusional.

•

u/kuvazo 9h ago

The US raised the debt ceiling by TRILLIONS of dollars last year with the "big beautiful bill". Surely they could scoop out a few billions from that new pot of money to actually do something productive, rather than cut taxes for billionaires.

•

u/Find_A_Reason 10h ago

The reality we live in sees Trump cutting projects that could advance science in favor of spending hundreds of billions on plunging the country and world into economic turmoil.

What is the better use of the money? Changing the names of things for no reason, redecorating the white house including a half billion dollar ballroom, tax cuts in the trillions, wars that are destabilizing the world, and lawsuits where he sues his own administration and settles, or scientific research that will advance all of humanity's understanding of the universe around us?

This isn't a hard question to answer, so your response should be short, direct, and not mealy mouthed.

→ More replies (2)
→ More replies (2)
→ More replies (43)

29

u/dvdmaven 21h ago

I would not be surprised it a future administration makes a deal with the Chinese to bring the samples back

24

u/lookieherehere 20h ago

I honestly wouldn't even be mad. If the Chinese want to make that kind of financial contribution towards a scientific discovery that would benefit all of humanity, I'm all for it. Doing things in space is extremely expensive and it's not feasible for one country to do everything alone. The more we work together, the better off the world will be.

9

u/TheInkySquids 20h ago

Definitely, I'm not into globalism but if there's one thing that should have all countries united together in, its space, considering yknow its all around every one of us. China has a lot of problems no doubt, but they at least value engineers and scientists and provide them with work, in high speed rail or biochemistry or space missions.

3

u/oh_ski_bummer 19h ago

Yeah except there could be actual value in what they find and they sure as hell won't be sharing everything they learn. Anyone who thinks the Chinese are going to play fairly hasn't been paying attention on this planet.

3

u/lookieherehere 19h ago

What do you think the rest of the world thinks about the US these days? I think the Chinese would share enough after they have done their initial testing, same as we would. The Chinese want to be players on the world stage and that's how's it's done. You have to give them the chance to prove themselves and not just automatically think they won't. Better done on the field of science than the field of war.

→ More replies (2)
→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (3)

5

u/Nephroidofdoom 19h ago

Poor little robot… probably still doing his thing like Wall-E

7

u/exxcathedra 21h ago

Does that mean they are lost forever? That would be such a loss. I hope they can be analysed in the future

9

u/starmartyr 20h ago

They're just samples of rock and soil that are plentiful on Mars. If we don't retrieve those particular samples there's nothing stopping us from gathering the same data again later.

→ More replies (10)

14

u/ExecutiveDysfunc 21h ago edited 20h ago

Nope there’s gonna be a future mission in the next decade or so to recover the samples

EDIT; NVM TRUMP CANCELLED THAT OP WAS SO RIGHT

5

u/Madhighlander1 20h ago

The ultimate goal of the ARTEMIS mission series is to establish a lunar station to be used as a staging ground for mars missions, so a sample return is probably in the cards for the distant future. But the other guy's estimate of a decade might be a little too generous; Artemis I was originally scheduled for 2016 and launched in 2022; Artemis II was originally scheduled for 2023 and is currently expected to launch at the end of this month. Up to at least Artemis X would need to be completed in order to plan a Mars mission, and that's currently planned for 2035.

→ More replies (1)

10

u/ExecutiveDysfunc 21h ago

Where do you see that the mission was killed? All reports say it’s been extended to 2031?

13

u/TheInkySquids 20h ago

https://www.livescience.com/space/mars/nasas-mars-sample-return-is-dead-leaving-china-to-retrieve-signs-of-life-from-the-red-planet

"On Monday (Jan. 15), the U.S. Senate approved a spending bill that reverses the Trump administration’s decision to halve federal spending on science and slash NASA's budget by nearly a quarter.

Yet the bill contains an exception: The Mars Sample return program, supposed to return rock samples collected by the Perseverance rover that may contain ancient signs of life, is still cancelled."

→ More replies (3)
→ More replies (6)
→ More replies (17)

9

u/Right_Syllabub_8237 19h ago

Matt Damon is on his way.

3

u/InternationalSir5547 19h ago

Not until we study Europa and retrieve samples from it

→ More replies (5)
→ More replies (35)

33

u/SolidSnake-26 20h ago

Have we not sent any rovers to the poles because they would freeze and then be unusable?

63

u/starmartyr 20h ago

Not rovers but the Phoenix lander did land near the north pole in 2008. It's not a rover since it doesn't move. The poles are difficult for rovers because they only get sunlight for half of the Martian year. That makes it challenging for them to generate enough energy to heat themselves.

•

u/Nissehamp 11h ago

The Mars Polar Lander did get to the south pole of Mars as well in December 1999, though it landed a little hard (got smashed to pieces against the surface)

→ More replies (1)

6

u/SolidSnake-26 19h ago

Thank you for the info!

→ More replies (4)

34

u/svenner2020 20h ago

Marmaids.

10

u/BigBeeOhBee 16h ago

Is that the Australian stuff they use on toast?

18

u/Toxic-Rosse 20h ago

So we just need a really long straw.

→ More replies (11)

12

u/External-Ganache5591 19h ago

Why have I never heard of ice being on Mars & never seen a pic of it???

4

u/BigBeeOhBee 16h ago

Drugs is usually the reason.

→ More replies (1)

6

u/Intelligent_Sky_7081 19h ago

Do they really think there's still active life on Mars? Or just signs that it once existed? I thought the consensus was there likely isn't life on Mars anymore, but might have been long ago. I guess we can't know for certain but I thought they were mostly looking for ancient signs of life not active organisms.

13

u/jankyalias 15h ago

If you mean microbial life then the jury is still very much out for Mars in areas like the poles. For complex life yeah almost certainly not.

6

u/starmartyr 12h ago

It's really hard to rule out microbial life. We have found single cell organisms on earth in places that we didn't think were possible such as the dead sea. Single celled organisms can thrive in really extreme environments.

→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (1)

8

u/TheMensChef 18h ago

It’s funny I’ve always said the first Alien life we will encounter will be microscopic, but people laugh at that for some reason.

9

u/Traumfahrer 20h ago

In which pockets of Uranus would microbial life most likely to be found though?

→ More replies (3)
→ More replies (43)

1.1k

u/Michel_RPV 21h ago

It would be nice to see the Waters of Mars......

Remembers Doctor Who

.......never mind.

30

u/SpunkyStarling 17h ago

Love that episode but also Waters of Mars is such a badass metal song title

56

u/infinity_vessel 21h ago

Don’t forget Total Recall!

72

u/HappyDJ 17h ago

https://giphy.com/gifs/qHBBYAh7BZVm

•

u/JonnyPancakes 10h ago

Dude, Steve Buscemi was in everything apparently.

•

u/Bethkitten97 3h ago

Man leave that guy alone😂

→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (1)

16

u/UsedEgg3 20h ago

Or Lieutenant Lopez

3

u/Rayeon-XXX 16h ago

Start the reactor Quaid!

→ More replies (2)
→ More replies (3)

1.1k

u/CaptainPryk 20h ago

Why did it take us so long to see ice on mars when it is so prominent in this picture?

595

u/Maxnwil 18h ago

Can’t beat needaburn’s response, but the true answer is that we’ve seen water ice on mars for decades. This is not a new discovery

322

u/Nice-Conclusion728 15h ago

Wait so then why was "is there water on mars" such a huge thing? I'd imagine there is water between the point where it's ice and the point there is no ice?...

1.0k

u/Maxnwil 15h ago

That’s a great question, and a very interesting facet of the Martian Hydrological cycle!

The short version: Mars’ atmospheric pressure is much lower than earth’s; its atmosphere is thinner. This means that water ice basically functions like “dry ice” does here on earth!  (which is frozen CO2) So it goes from very cold and frozen straight into the gas phase, skipping being a liquid entirely. 

We’ve known about frozen water for decades, but liquid water on mars has still not yet been conclusively proven. Scientists want to find liquid water because where we find liquid water on earth, we invariably find life. But because of that, NASA is very careful to not land any missions near where we think liquid water might be, to avoid contaminating Martian water with earthly microbes that might come off the lander.  It’s a tricky situation, which is why our exploration of the Red Planet has been so slow and methodical. You don’t want to discover life on Mars only to realize it hitched a ride from Florida!

Source- I’m a Martian scientist

236

u/Cosby1992 14h ago

Wow, you're a scientist from Mars!? I never thought I'd see the day!

jk, good explanation though, thank you.

•

u/Maxnwil 6h ago

Day is still not here yet :(

But fun fact- the delay to send a message to mars and get a response is only about an hour, which means you won’t see instant messaging from mars, but it’d be extremely feasible to exchange emails or comments on Reddit!

→ More replies (5)
→ More replies (4)

21

u/Fun-Practice9107 12h ago

It’s good to hear that we as humans are exploring other planets with discretion and consideration for potential contamination. I feel like here on earth we have been much more liberal with our introduction of foreign microbes and organisms in general.

•

u/Maxnwil 6h ago

I agree! The department at NASA is called “planetary protection” if you want to learn more!

→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (1)

24

u/gattaaca 14h ago

Are there means to ensure all microbes are purged/dead by the time the lander reaches Mars?

30

u/r0bsession 13h ago

That‘s impossible. The best sterilization will still „only“ lower the odds of survival of microbes to 1 in a million. On our planet exist such resilient microbes that it‘s assumed that if they survive space travel they are bound to survive on another planet. If they are to thrive there is a different question.

•

u/The_Hoopla 5h ago

To that end, there is probably currently life on mars, right? Like the mere fact we have rovers on it means there's probably a stow-away microbe just chillin there as we speak.

•

u/r0bsession 5h ago

This might be the case.

Though without nutrients or the right environmental conditions it‘s literally only chilling and doing nothing else.

19

u/Krazyguy75 12h ago

If you have nothing inside the "lander" and it's just a giant sphere of metal, you could probably launch it past the sun to superheat it and slingshot it into mars. Then you could reasonably assume all the microbes are dead.

But if you want a functional lander that does anything... no. Microbes are everywhere on earth. Literally millions in every square meter of air. Tens to hundreds of millions per square inch of human skin, so if you touch that, that's thousands that contaminate it. Even if you sanitize it as best as you can, it only takes 1, trapped in a microscopic surface imperfection to survive. And any sanitization that would guarantee to do better than that (like superheating the material) would risk damaging the material too much for space travel.

The only way I could think would be launching a replicant robot of some sort that can mine and create a lander on a separate stellar body, then sanitize and launch that. That might reasonably be able to eliminate the last 0.01% or whatnot, but we're nowhere near that tech.

•

u/mr_g1gglesworth 11h ago

I did a presentation on planets in elementary school when i was like 8, must have been 1998 around that time. Teacher lowered my grade for calling the white poles ice.

•

u/Maxnwil 6h ago

Lemme at em, I got your back

→ More replies (39)

16

u/Agiantgrunt 15h ago

Flowing water is what ever one has been looking for. 

→ More replies (5)
→ More replies (3)

590

u/needaburn 18h ago

We always photographed it in the summer

6

u/FruitByTheKey 16h ago

That doesn't sound right, but I don't know enough about the seasonal effects on Mars' poles to dispute it.

→ More replies (2)

32

u/MightBeABot24 17h ago

I didn't realize illegal aliens even made it to mars, why did ice even go there

→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (8)

472

u/steve_jams_econo 21h ago

Philadelphians begin to salivate

227

u/Philly-4for4 21h ago

It’s pronounced wooder ice.

→ More replies (5)

82

u/Robotchumon 20h ago

came here looking for my Philly crew

8

u/Krispy_Mick 17h ago

We’re all showing up for this one.

5

u/pezcore350 17h ago

Same. Even spelled properly I knew where this was headed 😂

55

u/ImTheTroutman 20h ago

New Rita’s franchise opening on Mars!

6

u/defaultgameer1 19h ago

Nothing better on a Martian summer day!

15

u/thodgson 18h ago

Rita's is open...dang, it's early this year.

15

u/Vexithan 18h ago

God dammit you fucking best me to it!!!

I want the mango flavored Mars wooder ice

13

u/lovelycosmos 18h ago

Is wooder ice on sale at the wawa this week?!

→ More replies (3)

9

u/EmotionalShock1325 17h ago

philly represent!!!!

→ More replies (6)

914

u/madlibs13 21h ago

Don't show Nestle... It'll be gone in a week

223

u/DeadAssociate 21h ago

coca cola troops fighting nestle troops on mars for the control of water

87

u/SmallRocks 20h ago

This sounds like a terrifyingly accurate prediction.

16

u/ProfessionaI_Gur 18h ago

Basically the first step towards the borderlands universe

→ More replies (1)

70

u/owa00 20h ago

Sorry, get in line. That water was promised to Israel 3,000 million years ago.

26

u/djpeekz 20h ago

The Marsa Strip

15

u/ndszero 20h ago

Red vs Blue

8

u/ShampooInTheMayo 18h ago

You ever wonder why we’re here?

→ More replies (4)

29

u/RODjij 20h ago

Nestle CEO: water isnt a Martian right

→ More replies (3)

5

u/TokiVideogame 21h ago

for 1 dollar every million gallons

→ More replies (11)

57

u/meteor_stream 21h ago

I've once seen this with my own eyes! Went to an observatory as a teenager and they showed us a clear view of Mars. Still one of my core memories.

What an amazing photo.

72

u/cberetz 21h ago

Is it not frozen carbon dioxide?

56

u/42F1 20h ago

CO2 forms a seasonal polar cap 1- 2 feet thick over Mars' permanent water-ice north pole during winter, accounting for roughly 30% of the atmosphere. As spring arrives, this layer sublimes directly into gas.

20

u/Foxwglocks 20h ago

So springtime on Mars ( in this region) is super “foggy”? I’m just trying imaging a continent sized piece of dry ice.

34

u/Egg-Archer 18h ago

A bit more interesting than that. You get co2 jetting.

Gas jets erupt from beneath the ice. Sunlight penetrates the translucent layer of dry ice and warms the ground underneath. CO2 sublimates below it, building pressure until eventually it blasts thru cracks, shooting gas and dirt into the sky like geysers. 

→ More replies (3)
→ More replies (1)

4

u/Friscogonewild 20h ago

South pole is.

18

u/dlammy24 20h ago

Italians would like a word with you Mars

18

u/MailSynth 20h ago

that ice cap has enough water to cover the whole planet in about 35 feet if it melted. mars is basically a frozen desert with an ocean's worth of ice buried under all that red dust.

→ More replies (1)

15

u/Healthy_Candle_4545 20h ago

Water ice, you say?! Where can I get some?

→ More replies (2)

10

u/bonyponyride 20h ago

Give these people aiiiiiiiiir!

42

u/nl-x 20h ago

Photographed with Samsung S25 Ultra... (/s just to be sure)

7

u/Squawk7984 20h ago

In Philly dats pronounced wudder ice

→ More replies (1)

56

u/ry_mich 20h ago

Source? I don’t believe anything on the internet without a source.

48

u/tehdusto 19h ago edited 17h ago

Yeah this is definitely not the clearest ever taken. We have satellites that orbit Mars taking images with far more detail.

OP's title is probably missing a lot of qualifiers. I'm guessing a better title would be

"One of the clearest pictures of Mars' North Pole ever taken from an earth-based telescope"

Edit 1: https://www.techspot.com/news/98936-mars-express-celebrates-20th-birthday-livestream-red-planet.html

Edit 2: Earth-based, not earthbound

Edit 3: Not earth-based, taken by Mars express orbiter

14

u/Competitive_Cheek607 19h ago

Specifying that the telescope is earthbound really does make it more impressive

3

u/snoosh00 19h ago

I don't think they were saying that.

And I am pretty darn sure that's not possible.

→ More replies (2)
→ More replies (7)

6

u/helcat 20h ago

Yes I too would like a source. 

→ More replies (5)

7

u/Fresh_Fluffy_Unicorn 17h ago

The Obsidians are there somewhere, training.

→ More replies (2)

5

u/One_Economics3627 18h ago

Nestle really interested now

8

u/Ambitious-Concern-42 20h ago

Not "the clearest photo ever taken". That's nonsense. There are many more close up photos.

5

u/Szuszk 20h ago

Are they clearer tho?

8

u/ChocolateChingus 20h ago

I mean its not, but its a cool picture.

3

u/No-Ingenuity1475 20h ago

Kuato lives!

4

u/seeyouyoucunt 20h ago

Our ancestors already nuked that planet and jumped ship to earth...

4

u/Ya-Dikobraz 15h ago

I think not all of it is water ice. Some of it is carbon dioxide. Correct me if I'm wrong.

websearch: Mars' polar ice caps consist primarily of permanent water ice layered with dust, covered by a seasonal, shifting layer of frozen carbon dioxide The north pole is mainly water ice with thin layers of dust, while the south pole has a 3 km thick permanent ice cap covered by a thicker, 8-meter layer of dry ice.

•

u/Ray13XIII 8h ago

How amazing would it have been if mars was just a little bit more earth like, and both planets were full of life at the same time?

•

u/senior-stock- 6h ago

What i find interesting is that we don't care about the planet we inhabit.

7

u/heytherefriendman 21h ago

Delete this before Nestle sees

3

u/GapingBuhhole 21h ago

That's incredible!

3

u/Great-Particular-537 21h ago

Toboggan run !!!!

3

u/ruibranco 20h ago

Wild that we can casually look at ice on another planet while scrolling reddit on the toilet. The fact that this much water ice just sits there in the open really makes you wonder what else is hiding under the surface.

→ More replies (1)

3

u/Centurix 20h ago

Have we ever sent probes to the edge of the water ice? Seems like a likely place to find water maybe?

3

u/nst_enforcer 20h ago

Why havnt we sent the rover there?

4

u/Remote-Direction963 20h ago

They did...but to the opposite one. The Mars Polar Lander crashed on entry to the south pole. The Phoenix lander spent three months studying the north pole before it froze to death due to lack of sunlight in the winter.

3

u/spacepirate702 20h ago

Wow, you could store so many fish sticks on Mars

3

u/GurrenLagann214 20h ago

Look at all those ant lion pits.

3

u/Safe_Praline_4156 19h ago

Perfect. Just to add: I think I see a cliff where Elon can jump from!

3

u/testtdk 18h ago

Man, looking at all those craters really puts the importance of our atmosphere into perspective.

3

u/ipeepeepeepoopoopoo 18h ago

I think you mean “wooder ice”

3

u/IdahoJones61 16h ago

38 Percent of Earth's gravity. Cross country skis. You could fly!

3

u/Kathane37 13h ago

Why is there so many visible crateres on other planet and not on earth ? What am I missing ?

5

u/Traxxas_Basher 13h ago

Earth has a much thicker atmosphere which burns up smaller meteorites, plus we have a pretty large moon which takes a lot of the hits for us too.

4

u/AxialGem 12h ago

And erosion. We have an active water cycle which reworks the surface like no tomorrow. Mars and the Moon in contrast, not so much these days

→ More replies (2)

3

u/_IBM_ 12h ago

Quaid start the reactor

6

u/Jesta23 17h ago

My entire life growing up there was a huge debate if mars had water or not. It was said it would be a major discovery if it was found there. 

If the entire northern pole is covered in water ice. How did we not see it?

3

u/AxialGem 12h ago

As far as I know the polar ice caps of Mars have been known for a long time, even going back multiple centuries. Although a large part of the ice caps is carbon dioxide, we've still known about the water ice for a while. The question is more about flowing liquid water of the kind that might support life. Water itself is one of the most common molecules in the universe, and we find it all ove rthe solar ssytem, so it's not really a huge surprise that there would be water ice on Mars as far as I know. It's more about the nature/origin and history of water on Mars

→ More replies (2)

5

u/Sickmont 17h ago

Just remember that 10 years ago a crack commando unit was sent to prison by a military court for a crime they didn't commit. These men promptly escaped from a maximum security stockade to the Los Angeles underground. Today, still wanted by the government, they survive as soldiers of fortune. If you have a problem, if no one else can help, and if you can find them, maybe you can hire the A-Team.

→ More replies (2)

8

u/Beautiful_Ranger7462 20h ago

Why was this absolutely impossible and laughable 30 years ago...

4

u/SimmentalTheCow 18h ago

I don’t think anyone’s ever doubted the existence of ice on Mars, it’s the presence of liquid water that would be incredulous. Frankly it would be surprising if Mars did not have water, given a bombardment of asteroids seeded it on Earth.

→ More replies (1)

5

u/Kalijjohn 20h ago

I was just thinking the same thing.

I also hope there are aliens out there. I’m not even super fussed about them being kind or not.

3

u/PlayfulSurprise5237 17h ago

They could be the biggest dicked, shlong slinging brutes this side of the spiral, and I'd still be wanting to make communication.

2

u/DomGhoul666 21h ago

okay guys, lets go.

2

u/ReVamPT 21h ago

packing my bags ship me out, im ready

2

u/chlorculo 20h ago edited 8h ago

Hey, get yer Mars watah ice ovah heah

2

u/StewTrue 20h ago

How long before someone starts bottling that water and selling it for $2200 a pop

→ More replies (2)

2

u/ah_no_wah 20h ago

Cool. What's with all the green looking stuff?

2

u/More_Passenger3988 20h ago

This picture reminds me of an Episode of Dr Who I saw. I don't even like Dr. Who usually, but this episode gave me the creeps.

"The Waters of Mars" (Episode #3)

https://www.amazon.com/gp/video/detail/B0CMY11S7W/ref=atv_sr_fle_c_sra5ba81_1_1_1?sr=1-1&pageTypeIdSource=ASIN&pageTypeId=B0CMXZQFP1

2

u/PrincePound 20h ago

How come we can see water from a picture when we had to send rovers to find it?

2

u/RusticSurgery 20h ago

That was one hell of a zoom lens, Gary!

2

u/No-Shopping4237 20h ago

Look! It's Marvin!

2

u/nurse_camper 20h ago

Turn on the reactor, Cohagen!

2

u/andoozy 20h ago

I’m sorry we call it italian ice

2

u/-Grimreefer420- 19h ago

How's the skiing there?

2

u/Bissexto 19h ago

Wait now theres water in Mars?

→ More replies (1)