{"id":111191,"date":"2025-09-03T09:39:07","date_gmt":"2025-09-03T09:39:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/111191\/"},"modified":"2025-09-03T09:39:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-03T09:39:07","slug":"new-research-shows-mars-is-far-icier-than-we-thought","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/111191\/","title":{"rendered":"New Research Shows Mars Is Far Icier Than We Thought"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\"Mars<\/a>Beneath Mars\u2019 dusty slopes lie glaciers that resemble frozen honey, but new research reveals they are far purer than once believed Credit: Shutterstock<\/p>\n

Mars\u2019 glaciers are over 80% pure ice, formed by similar processes worldwide. This discovery sheds light on past climate and future exploration resources.<\/p>\n

On the slopes of Martian mountains and within its craters lie formations that look like streams of honey, blanketed in dust and frozen in place. These structures are, in fact, glaciers that creep forward at an almost imperceptible pace. For years, scientists believed they were largely composed of rock with only limited amounts of ice mixed in.<\/p>\n

Research carried out over the past two decades has shown that some of these glaciers are actually made up of mostly ice, with just a thin surface layer of dust and rock. Now, a new study published in Icarus reveals that this is not limited to a few sites\u2014glaciers across Mars contain more than 80% water ice. This discovery indicates that the planet\u2019s glacial deposits are remarkably pure on a global scale, offering fresh insight into Mars\u2019 climate history and pointing to a potential resource for future exploration.<\/p>\n

The study was led by Yuval Steinberg, a recent graduate of the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel. His coauthors, Oded Aharonson and Isaac Smith, are senior scientists at the Planetary Science Institute in Tucson, with academic affiliations at the Weizmann Institute of Science and York University, respectively.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis study highlights how NASA programs are advancing science not just within the United States, but also reaching students around the world,\u201d Aharonson said.<\/p>\n

Peering under the dust-covered veil
\n\"Glacier<\/a>This is an example of a debris-covered glacier on Mars. New research into these features suggest that they are purer than once thought, with implications for understanding Mars\u2019 overall water budget and resource utilization on future manned missions. Credit: NASA\/JPL-Caltech\/University of Arizona<\/p>\n

As the researchers reviewed earlier studies, they realized that the analysis of debris-covered glaciers had been inconsistent and difficult to compare.<\/p>\n

\u201cDifferent techniques had been applied by researchers to various sites, and the results could not be easily compared,\u201d explained Smith. \u201cOne of the sites in our study had never been studied, and at two of the five sites we used, only partial analysis had been completed previously.\u201d<\/p>\n

To address this, the team developed a standardized approach for examining debris-covered glaciers. They focused on two key measurements: the dielectric property (which reflects how quickly radar waves travel through a material) and the loss tangent (which indicates how much of that energy is absorbed by the material). These values make it possible to estimate the ratio of ice to rock within a glacier\u2014something that cannot be determined through surface observation alone, since dust and rock often obscure what lies beneath.<\/p>\n

Global comparison of Martian glaciers<\/p>\n

They also identified another area on Mars where SHARAD, short for the SHAllow RADar instrument onboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, could also do these analyses. This gave them a total of five sites spread across the red planet, enabling global comparison.<\/p>\n

\"Glacier<\/a>The five sites that the team investigated for glacier purity. The fact that these disparate sites contained a similarly high ice-to-rock ratio implies that Mars experienced either one widespread glaciation or multiple glaciations that had similar properties, according to the team. Credit: Steinberg et. al.<\/p>\n

They were surprised to find that all glaciers, even in opposite hemispheres, have nearly the same properties.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is important because it tells us that the formation and preservation mechanisms are probably the same everywhere,\u201d Smith said. \u201cFrom that, we can conclude that Mars experienced either one widespread glaciation or multiple glaciations that had similar properties. And, by bringing together these sites and techniques for the first time, we were able to unify our understanding of these types of glaciers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Knowing the minimum purity of these glaciers benefits scientific understanding of the processes that form and preserve them. Additionally, it helps when planning for future human exploration of Mars, when using local resources, such as water, becomes mission-critical.<\/p>\n

Next, the team will seek out additional glaciers to add their global comparison and solidify their understanding of these dust-covered mysteries.<\/p>\n

Reference: \u201cPhysical properties of subsurface water ice deposits in Mars\u2019s Mid-Latitudes from the shallow radar\u201d by Yuval Steinberg, Isaac B. Smith and Oded Aharonson, 7 July 2025, Icarus.
DOI: 10.1016\/j.icarus.2025.116716<\/a><\/p>\n

Never miss a breakthrough: Join the SciTechDaily newsletter.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Beneath Mars\u2019 dusty slopes lie glaciers that resemble frozen honey, but new research reveals they are far purer…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":111192,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[53698,32685,395,3725,53699,90,416,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-111191","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-space","8":"tag-astrogeology","9":"tag-glacier","10":"tag-mars","11":"tag-planetary-science","12":"tag-planetary-science-institute","13":"tag-science","14":"tag-space","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom","17":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111191","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=111191"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111191\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/111192"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=111191"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=111191"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=111191"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}