This week’s photos take us out to our solar system and then to infinity and beyond—almost. First we’re hanging around Mars, since Mars is kind of a bizarre place.
Researchers running the scientific instrument and communications satellite called Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter captured images of an ancient lakebed on the red planet, in the region called Eridania basin. From surveying the terrain on Mars—whether it’s clays, rocks that have been smoothed by the churning of slow rapids, or the frozen ice deposits at the poles—we know there likely was a lot of water on Mars in the form of lakes and rivers and streams. While the Eridania basin no longer contains water in liquid form, leftover clay deposits hint that it did once upon a time.
Next we roll down to the south Martian pole to watch some carbon dioxide sublimate during the warmer spring months. Mars may not look like a lively place, but it has seasons, and interesting things can be observed across them. During springtime, frozen carbon dioxide trapped below the ice cap turns from a solid state into a gas, forming features that from above look like dark spiders. Future Martian visitors can take solace that they are not enormous alien spiders (as far as we can tell).
Are you brave enough to explore the vast mysteries of space? Go boldly into the full cosmic collection here.
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