Mars

Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun in our solar system. It is named after Mars, the god of war in Roman mythology (the counterpart to Ares in Greek mythology), because of its red color as viewed in the night sky. This feature also earned it the name "The Red Planet." Mars has two moons (Phobos and Deimos) which are both small and oddly-shaped, possibly being captured asteroids. The prefix areo- refers to Mars in the same way geo- refers to Earth—e.g. areology versus geology.

Ice lakes

On 29 July 2005, the BBC reported that a visible ice lake had been discovered in a crater in the north polar region of Marshttp://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4727847.stm. Images of the crater, taken by the High Resolution Stereo Camera on board the European Space Agency's Mars Express spacecraft, clearly show a broad sheet of ice in the bottom of an unnamed crater located on Vastitas Borealis, a broad plain that covers much of Mars' far northern latitudes, at approximately 70.5° North and 103° East. The crater is 35 km (23 mi) wide and about 2 km (1.2 mi) deep.

Related Topics:
29 July - 2005 - BBC - High Resolution Stereo Camera - European Space Agency - Mars Express - Vastitas Borealis

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The BBC report however, appears to have either intentionally sensationalized or unintentionally mis-interpreted the original HRSC/Mars Express featurehttp://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Mars_Express/SEMGKA808BE_0.html, which makes no claim or insinuation that this is a "lake". Like many thousands of other places on Mars, this ice sheet is a thin layer of frost that has condensed onto dark, cold sand dunes (about 200 m high) making their way across the bottom of the crater. The only thing remarkable about this feature is that it is far enough north to maintain at least some frost throughout the year. Keep in mind that water cannot exist in the liquid state over most of Mars' surface because of the thinness of the atmosphere; it can only subsist in liquid form in a few places, such as the Hellas basin.

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