By IANS/RIA Novosti,
Moscow : Scientists have received the clearest evidence yet of carbon dioxide snowfalls on Mars based on data provided by NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), NASA reported Tuesday.
Frozen carbon dioxide, known as “dry ice”, requires temperatures of about minus 193 degrees Fahrenheit. The report is being published in the Journal of Geophysical Research, NASA said.
“These are the first definitive detections of carbon dioxide snow clouds,” the report’s lead author, Paul Hayne of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, said.
“We firmly establish the clouds are composed of carbon dioxide – flakes of Martian air – and they are thick enough to result in snowfall accumulation at the surface,” he said.
NASA described that as the only known example of carbon dioxide snow falling in our solar system.