[meteorite-list] MRO Sees Ice on Mars Exposed by Meteor Impacts

[Ron Baalke]

Sept. 24, 2009

Dwayne Brown 
Headquarters, Washington 
202-358-1726 
dwayne.c.brown at nasa.gov 

Guy Webster 
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. 
818-354-6278 
guy.webster at jpl.nasa.gov 

RELEASE: 09-224

NASA SPACECRAFT SEES ICE ON MARS EXPOSED BY METEOR IMPACTS

PASADENA, Calif. -- NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has revealed 
frozen water hiding just below the surface of mid-latitude Mars. The 
spacecraft's observations were obtained from orbit after meteorites 
excavated fresh craters on the Red Planet. 

Scientists controlling instruments on the orbiter found bright ice 
exposed at five Martian sites with new craters that range in depth 
from approximately 1.5 feet to 8 feet. The craters did not exist in 
earlier images of the same sites. Some of the craters show a thin 
layer of bright ice atop darker underlying material. The bright 
patches darkened in the weeks following initial observations, as the 
freshly exposed ice vaporized into the thin Martian atmosphere. One 
of the new craters had a bright patch of material large enough for 
one of the orbiter's instruments to confirm it is water ice. 

The finds indicate water ice occurs beneath Mars' surface halfway 
between the north pole and the equator, a lower latitude than 
expected in the Martian climate. 

"This ice is a relic of a more humid climate from perhaps just several 
thousand years ago," said Shane Byrne of the University of Arizona. 

Byrne is a member of the team operating the orbiter's High Resolution 
Imaging Science Experiment, or HiRISE camera, which captured the 
unprecedented images. Byrne and 17 co-authors report the findings in 
the Sept. 25 edition of the journal Science. 

"We now know we can use new impact sites as probes to look for ice in 
the shallow subsurface," said Megan Kennedy of Malin Space Science 
Systems in San Diego, a co-author of the paper and member of the team 
operating the orbiter's Context Camera. 

During a typical week, the Context Camera returns more than 200 images 
of Mars that cover a total area greater than California. The camera 
team examines each image, sometimes finding dark spots that fresh, 
small craters make in terrain covered with dust. Checking earlier 
photos of the same areas can confirm a feature is new. The team has 
found more than 100 fresh impact sites, mostly closer to the equator 
than the ones that revealed ice. 

An image from the camera on Aug. 10, 2008, showed apparent cratering 
that occurred after an image of the same ground was taken 67 days 
earlier. The opportunity to study such a fresh impact site prompted a 
look by the orbiter's higher resolution camera on Sept. 12, 2009, 
confirming a cluster of small craters. 

"Something unusual jumped out," Byrne said. "We observed bright 
material at the bottoms of the craters with a very distinct color. It 
looked a lot like ice." 

The bright material at that site did not cover enough area for a 
spectrometer instrument on the orbiter to determine its composition. 
However, a Sept. 18, 2008, image of a different mid-latitude site 
showed a crater that had not existed eight months earlier. This 
crater had a larger area of bright material. 

"We were excited about it, so we did a quick-turnaround observation," 
said co-author Kim Seelos of Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics 
Laboratory in Laurel, Md., "Everyone thought it was water ice, but it 
was important to get the spectrum for confirmation." 

The Mars orbiter is designed to facilitate coordination and quick 
response by the science teams, making it possible to detect and 
understand rapidly changing features. The ice exposed by fresh 
impacts suggests that NASA's Viking 2 lander, digging into 
mid-latitude Mars in 1976, might have struck ice if it had dug four 
inches deeper. 

The Viking 2 mission, which consisted of an orbiter and a lander, 
launched in September 1975 and became one of the first two space 
probes to land successfully on the Martian surface. The Viking 1 and 
2 landers characterized the structure and composition of the 
atmosphere and surface. They also conducted on-the-spot biological 
tests for life on another planet. 

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena manages the Mars 
Reconnaissance Orbiter for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in 
Washington. Lockheed Martin Space Systems in Denver built the 
spacecraft. The Context Camera was built and is operated by Malin. 
The University of Arizona operates the HiRISE camera, which Ball 
Aerospace & Technologies Corp., in Boulder, Colo., built. The Johns 
Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory led the effort to build 
the Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer and operates it in 
coordination with an international team of researchers. 

To view images of the craters and learn more about the Mars 
Reconnaissance Orbiter, visit: 

http://www.nasa.gov/mro 
	
-end-

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FROM: Lori Stiles (520-626-4402; lstiles at u.arizona.edu)

SCIENTISTS SEE WATER ICE IN FRESH METEORITE CRATERS ON MARS

Scientists are seeing sub-surface water ice that may be 99 percent pure 
halfway between the north pole and the equator on Mars, thanks to 
quick-turnaround observations from orbit of fresh meteorite impact 
craters on the planet.

"We knew there was ice below the surface at high latitudes of Mars, but 
we find that it extends far closer to the equator than you would think, 
based on Mars' climate today," said Shane Byrne of the University of 
Arizona, a member of the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment, or 
HiRISE, which runs the high-resolution camera on NASA's Mars 
Reconnaissance Orbiter.

"The other surprising discovery is that ice exposed at the bottom of 
these meteorite impact craters is so pure," Byrne said. "The thinking 
before was that ice accumulates below the surface between soil grains, 
so there would be a 50-50 mix of dirt and ice. We were able to figure 
out, given how long it took that ice to fade from view, that the mixture 
is about one percent dirt and 99 percent ice."

Scientists used several instruments on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, 
or MRO, in quick succession in detecting and confirming highly pure, 
bright ice exposed in new craters, ranging from 1.5 feet to 8 feet deep, 
at five different Martian sites.

In August 2008, the orbiter's Context camera team examined their images 
for any dark spots or other changes that weren't visible in earlier 
images of the same area. Meteorites usually leave dark marks when they 
crash into dust-covered Mars terrain.

The HiRISE team, which bases its operations at the UA Lunar and 
Planetary Laboratory, followed up in September 2008 by taking 
high-resolution images of the dark spots.

"We saw something very unusual when we followed up on the first of these 
impact craters," Byrne said, "and that was this bright blue material 
poking up from the bottom of the crater. It looked a lot like water ice. 
And sure enough, when we started monitoring this material, it faded away 
like you'd expect water ice to fade, because water ice is unstable on 
Mars' surface and turns directly into water vapor in the atmosphere."

A few days later that September, the orbiter's "CRISM" team used their 
Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars and got the 
spectral signature of water ice exposed in one of the impact craters, 
further clinching the discovery.

"All of this had to happen very quickly because 200 days after we first 
saw the ice, it was gone, it was the color of dirt," Byrne said. "If we 
had taken HiRISE images just a few months later, we wouldn't have 
noticed anything unusual. This discovery would have just passed us by."

Byrne and 17 co-authors are reporting the findings in the Sept. 25 
edition of the journal Science.

How far water ice extends toward the equator depends largely on how much 
water has been available in the Martian atmosphere in the recent past, 
Byrne said: "The ice is a relic of a more humid climate not very long 
ago, perhaps just several thousand years ago."

The Phoenix Mars Lander mission last year also found clean ice at its 
landing site on the northern plains of Mars, Byrne noted.

But to find highly pure ice far closer to the equator because of random 
meteor impacts was unexpected, he said.

There are several theories about how a layer of such pure ice could have 
formed beneath Mars surface. Byrne said he thinks that one of the most 
promising ideas is that this ice on Mars formed in the same way that 
pure ice lenses form beneath the surface of the Earth.

"That's where you have very thin films of liquid water around ice grains 
and soil grains and they migrate around to form clear ice lenses on top 
of the ice table, even at temperatures well below zero. This process is 
called 'frost heave' on Earth, and it's considered a nuisance in most 
places because it cracks up roads and tilts walls and destroys 
foundations of houses.

"But on Mars it would be of great interest if we could discover a 
process that involved liquid water in today's climate, and not just in 
some of the warmest areas of the planet but in some of the coldest areas 
of the planet in the high latitude regions," Byrne said.

In the past decade, researchers from UA's Lunar and Planetary Laboratory 
have played major roles in piecing together the picture of where water 
is to be found on Mars:

* Professor Alfred McEwen, a co-author on the Sept. 25 Science paper, is 
principal investigator for HiRISE, which began imaging Mars in November 
2006. At this time, the HiRISE Web site features more than 577processed 
pictures of Martian water features among thousands of pictures of 
features on the surface of the planet.

* Professor William Boynton developed the Gamma Ray Spectrometer 
instrument package on Mars Odyssey that detected water ice near the 
Martian poles in 2001.

* Phoenix Mars Lander principal investigator Peter Smith headed the 
mission that used a long robotic arm to uncover and confirm the shallow 
ice table at its landing site, and other instruments to document 
snowfall and ground frost at its high polar latitude. The Phoenix Mars 
Mission began science operations on the northern plains of Mars after 
landing May 25, 2008, and lasted five months, until winter arrived.

The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is managed by the Jet Propulsion 
Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology, for 
NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington.

The University of Arizona operates the High Resolution Imaging Science 
Experiment, which operates the HiRISE camera built by Ball Aerospace & 
Technologies Corp., Boulder, Colo.

Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver, built the spacecraft. The Context 
Camera is operated by and was provided by Malin Space Science Systems. 
The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory led the effort 
to build the Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars and 
operates it in coordination with an international team of researchers.

SCIENCE CONTACTS:

Shane Byrne (520-626-0407; shane at lpl.arizona.edu)
Alfred McEwen (520-621-4573; mcewen at lpl.arizona.edu)

HiRISE WEBSITE & IMAGES:
http://hirise.lpl.arizona.edu