Recent observations have shown that a layer of frost is present on the tops of huge Martian volcanoes, in a surprising discovery that would give a better idea of the water cycle on the Red Planet and would be useful for sending exploration missions to it in the future. This discovery was made possible thanks to images taken by chance from Mars orbit by the European Space Agency’s Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) on the Tharsis Dome near the Martian equator, according to a study published in the journal Nature Geosciences. This vast high region, with a diameter of about five thousand kilometers, includes huge volcanoes that have been dormant for millions of years, including Olympus Mons, which is 22 kilometers high, three times the size of Mount Everest, and is considered the largest in the solar system. Adomas Valentinas, the main author of the study related to this discovery, said that no one expected to find frost in this place, as it was widely believed that this was impossible around the equator of Mars. The researcher at Brown University explained in a statement issued by the European Space Agency that strong sunlight and very low atmospheric pressure keep temperatures at a fairly high level at the peaks and on the surface of Mars. In the Tharsis region, temperatures can drop to a very low level of up to 130 degrees below zero at night, but this phenomenon does not rise again, unlike what happens on Earth, where the peaks are usually frozen. In addition, there is very little water in the area. The atmosphere of the Martian equator, making condensation difficult. Frédéric Schmidt, a professor at the University of Paris-Saclet who participated in preparing the study, saw that further study of this discovery is an important step for future human and robotic explorations. He said: “We can extract water from frost for human consumption, and launch rockets from Mars by separating oxygen and hydrogen molecules.”
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