A European satellite has seen an incredibly realistic angelic figure, with wings, halo and heart, in the southern polar region of Mars. It seems that some Martian artist painted the scene to wish us peace and joy for the holidays, but there is a perfectly good scientific explanation for the surreal visualization.
This festive scene was captured by the high-resolution camera aboard the European Space Agency Mars Express orbiter. Normally, this part of the red planet is covered with a thickness of one mile (1.6-thickness gauge) layer of ice, but it is currently summer in the southern polar region of Mars. With the ice temporarily gone, Mars Express managed to take pictures of the landscape, providing us with another example of pareidolia (Mars is notori to make us see things that are not really there).
In fact, this apparent painting of a haloed angel, with his right arm outstretched and his heart beside him, is the result of various geological processes, such as ESA. explain.
Contrasting colors are not found on top of a coffee with creamy cinnamon and cocoa milk, but rather a dune field full of dark minerals that form rocks (mainly pyroxene and olivine, which are also available on Earth). .
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What appears to be the tip of the angel’s right hand is probably a large sublimation well. These wells form when the ice turns directly into gas, leaving empty holes behind. Sublimation pits can be seen anywhere else in the solar system, including the dwarf planet Pluto.
The halo, perhaps the most appealing feature of the festive scene, is actually the edge of an impact crater. Whenever it is object that was it crashed into Mars and caused several layers of deposits from below. The angel’s head is made up of these dark deposits, which rests fortuitously inside the ancient impact crater, giving the impression of a surrounding halo.
To the right of the figure is a steep escarpment, which delimits much of the heart. Formed from millions of years of erosion, this striking formation contains cliffs and steep slopes and some really dark deposits, the origin of which is unclear.
As ESA points out, scientists believe that these dark materials “once existed further below the surface in layers of material formed by ancient volcanic activity.” And although this material was once buried, “it has since been brought to the surface by continuous impacts and erosion, and then has been more widely distributed across the planet by Martian winds.”
That’s right it was a super cool optical illusion forged by some equally fresh geological processes. Mars Express has seen fascinating advantages on Mars, including an 80.5-kilometer-wide one. ice rink in the Korolev crater and a giant cinnamon bread at the north pole.