Scientists Study New Pictures of Mars for Clues to Its Climate

New images from NASA’s Mars Global Surveyor show intricate, frosting-like layers near the south pole that could help scientists unlock the secrets of the Red Planet’s climate history.

The layers of dry ice, water ice and dust most likely formed as Mars’ climate changed. Scientists hope to better understand the forces that shaped them by closely studying the images and comparing them with others taken in the future.

“We’re not really sure what’s going on there,” said Michael Malin, president and chief scientist of Malin Space Science Systems. “What you can see in those pictures are flat layers that have been eroded in two very different ways.”

One image--a mosaic of several pictures--shows squiggly lines that resemble frosting but are actually layers exposed in the walls of a shallow trough.

“Something has eroded this . . . trough, and we’re seeing the layering expressed both as etches and as ridges in this depression,” Malin said.

The second picture, covering an area a few miles from the first, shows a flat surface with circular pits of the same depth eroded into the ice. Scientists believe that the erosion might be an effect of the dry ice that makes up the polar cap.

The images released Monday and posted on the Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s Web site, https://www.jpl.nasa.gov, were taken by the probe’s Mars Orbiter Camera, which was built and operated by Malin’s firm. The mosaics resolve features to the size of a small house and cover a 6-mile by 3-mile area.