The landscape near the south pole on Mars
The landscape near the south pole on Mars
Mars has permanent ice caps at both poles, which grow during the polar night of the winter on Mars due to the precipitation of ice crystals from the atmosphere. They shrink again at the end of the polar night due to warming. With a diameter of less than a thousand kilometres, the ice cap at the south pole is much smaller than the one at the north pole. In addition to the ice, strong winds also shape the polar regions, eroding valleys such as Promethei Chasma and Ultimum Chasma at the south pole – and depositing sand and dust transported by the winds, which create new geological formations. The High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) operated by the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR) imaged the landscape at approximately 80 degrees south on 8 November 2020 during orbit 21,305.
