Possible Active Glacier Found On Mars

FireFury03 writes "The European Space Agency's Mars Express spacecraft has spotted an icy feature which appears to be a young active glacier. Dr Gerhard Neukum, chief scientist on the spacecraft's High Resolution Stereo Camera said 'We have not yet been able to see the spectral signature of water. But we will fly over it in the coming months and take measurements. On the glacial ridges we can see white tips, which can only be freshly exposed ice'. Estimates place the glacier at 10,000 — 100,000 years old."

Comments

Sweet!

[scubamage]

The doctor in the article is named Dr. Neukem. If his first name is Duke, I would not want to be the one to contest his theory.

Re:Possible landing zone for a Mars Mission?

[CrackPipePls]

and more importantly, to cool beer :-)

Re:Not a surprise.

[MightyMartian]

I think the pleasure out of this finding is yet more evidence that Mars is an *active* planet. We've known for over a century about Martian seasons, for quite some time about the vast dust storms, and recently there have been some tanatalizing hints of ongoing vulcanism, and now an active glacier. For a glacier to be active, it means there has to be some sort of hydrological cycle to replenish the ice.