Scientists Report Glacial Activity on Mars

It appears the orbit of Mars around the sun affects the deposition of water ice on Mars’ South Pole, European scientists said.

Data from the European Space Agency’s Mars Express mission and models of the Martian climate suggest that perennial deposits of water-ice sitting on top of million-year old layered terrains provide strong evidence for a recent glacial activity, the ESA said Friday in a release.

We believe that the deposits of water-ice are juggled between Mars’ North and South Poles over a cycle that spans 51,000 years, corresponding to the time span in which the planet’s precession is inverted, lead author Franck Montmessin said.

Precession is the phenomenon by which the rotation axis of a planet wobbles.

The report was presented at the Seventh International Conference on Mars in California this week.