Недавние исследования NASA показали that the winter season on Mars lasts several months with a minimum temperature of -123.3 ℃ and snowflakes in the form of a cube. Moreover, when spring comes, melting ice is torn by underground geysers.
Covered by the hoarfrost
Snow on Mars is of two types: water ice and carbon dioxide (dry ice). Since the Martian air is sparse, and the temperature is low, the snow from water ice is sublimated (turns into gas) even before it touches the ground. The surface of the planet reaches precisely dry ice. Also on Mars is a fruit form, which is a mixture of dry and water ice, and disappears after a few months when spring comes.
In winter, the dunes are covered with hoarfrost and dry ice, and when in the spring they begin to sublimate, dark sand is exposed
Instead of hexagonal snowflakes, as on the ground, snowflakes in the shape of a cube fall on Mars. According to NASA, this is due to how ice crystals are formed when carbon dioxide freezes. These flakes are “less than the width of the human hair”, and the height of the largest snowdrifts rarely exceeds 2 m.
A spotted blue hoarfrost was formed on the edge of the crater
Ice melting also causes eruption of geysers. When sunlight penetrates through translucent ice, it heats the gas under the ice. Then the gas breaks out, creating the “dust fans” that drift on the Martian winds.
spring ice, frozen into the soil, split the surface into polygons. Blue color depicts dust fans formed by geysers.