{"id":111979,"date":"2026-09-30T18:27:35","date_gmt":"2026-09-30T22:27:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sci.news\/?p=111979"},"modified":"2026-09-30T18:27:35","modified_gmt":"2026-09-30T22:27:35","slug":"mars-north-pole-water-ice-15100","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sci.news\/space\/mars-north-pole-water-ice-15100.html","title":{"rendered":"Water Ice at Mars\u2019 North Pole is Considerably Cleaner than Previously Believed"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>A new analysis of orbital and lander data from Mars suggests the exposed north-polar water ice contains less than 3% dust, far below earlier estimates of up to 25%.<\/strong><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_111980\" style=\"width: 590px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sci.news\/images\/enlarge14\/image_15100e-Mars-North-Pole.jpg\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-111980\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-111980 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.sci.news\/images\/2026\/09\/image_15100-Mars-North-Pole.jpg\" alt=\"Map of the six north polar locations analyzed by P. Mohan &amp; A.R. Khuller, where water ice is exposed at the Martian surface. Image credit: P. Mohan &amp; A.R. Khuller, doi: 10.1038\/s44453-026-00054-9.\" width=\"580\" height=\"562\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.sci.news\/images\/2026\/09\/image_15100-Mars-North-Pole.jpg 580w, https:\/\/www.sci.news\/images\/2026\/09\/image_15100-Mars-North-Pole-300x291.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 580px) 100vw, 580px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-111980\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Map of the six north polar locations analyzed by P. Mohan &amp; A.R. Khuller, where water ice is exposed at the Martian surface. Image credit: P. Mohan &amp; A.R. Khuller, doi: 10.1038\/s44453-026-00054-9.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Planetary scientists learn about Martian ice by studying how it reflects light, as measured by orbiters such as ESA\u2019s Mars Express and NASA\u2019s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, as well as by NASA\u2019s Phoenix lander.<\/p>\n<p>But reflectance depends on several things at once, including grain size, dust content and layering, and past studies have matched similar spectra with very different combinations of those parameters.<\/p>\n<p>At the Phoenix landing site, for instance, dust estimates have varied by up to a factor of 25.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe know there is water ice in the area surrounding the north pole of Mars, but there has been widespread disagreement as to how dusty that ice is,\u201d said Dr. Aditya Khuller, a researcher at the University of Washington.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf it is dustier, the ice will be darker. Just like a dark T-shirt in the Sun makes you warmer, dusty ice gets warmer and vaporizes faster on Mars.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Dr. Khuller and University of Edinburgh\u2019s Dr. Pari Mohan used a physically based model originally developed for terrestrial snow and ice, and applied it to data from six north polar locations: two spots on the residual polar cap, Korolev and Louth craters, Chasma Boreale, and the Phoenix landing site.<\/p>\n<p>Their results differ sharply from some earlier works: an analysis of Mars Express data from Korolev crater, for example, had implied dust contents of about 15-22% by mass; the new study finds roughly 0.2-0.4% in the top layer for the same observations.<\/p>\n<p>The findings also suggest that the north pole is stacked \u2018like an ice-cream sandwich,\u2019 with layers of dustier ice between slabs of cleaner ice.<\/p>\n<p>A dusty layer of frost forms over the ice every winter and disappears in the summer, revealing older, cleaner ice.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBy looking at how the brightness changed over time, we figured out that there is a frost that forms in the winter and it\u2019s more dusty,\u201d Dr. Khuller said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn the Martian summer it goes away, exposing cleaner, older ice.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThese layers contain key details about the climate of Mars thousands of years ago, when the ice is thought to have formed from snowfall.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMars experiences massive ice ages that have deposited shallow ice on roughly one-third of the planet.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEarth is stabilized by the gravitational pull of its moon. Mars, having only two small moons, oscillates wildly, which causes these dramatic ice ages.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s44453-026-00054-9\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">paper<\/a> on the findings appears in the journal <em>npj Space Exploration<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #808080;\">_____<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #808080;\">P. Mohan &amp; A.R. Khuller. 2026. Revised dust content and grain size of exposed water ice at the North Pole of Mars. <em>npj Space Explor<\/em> 2, 36; doi: 10.1038\/s44453-026-00054-9<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A new analysis of orbital and lander data from Mars suggests the exposed north-polar water ice contains less than 3% dust, far below earlier estimates of up to 25%.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":111980,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4470,12],"tags":[5562,3765,40,752,7603,24397,25,327,1596,28,13801,18,19,831],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v20.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Water Ice at Mars\u2019 North Pole is Considerably Cleaner than Previously Believed | Sci.News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A new analysis of orbital and lander data from Mars suggests the exposed north-polar 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