« President Clinton Announces Verite and ASSET's Commitment to Address Human Trafficking and Forced Labor at Clinton Global Initiative | Main | Clinton Global Initiative Highlights A Glimmer of Hope »
NASA Spacecraft Sees Ice on Mars Exposed by Meteor Impacts
September 24, 2009NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has revealed frozen water hiding just below the surface of mid-latitude Mars. The spacecraft's observations were obtained from orbit after meteorites excavated fresh craters on the Red Planet. Scientists controlling instruments on the orbiter found bright ice exposed at five Martian sites with new craters that range in depth from approximately 1.5 feet to 8 feet. The craters did not exist in earlier images of the same sites. Some of the craters show a thin layer of bright ice atop darker underlying material. The bright patches darkened in the weeks following initial observations, as the freshly exposed ice vaporized into the thin Martian atmosphere. One of the new craters had a bright patch of material large enough for one of the orbiter's instruments to confirm it is water ice. Full release.