New Video from Mars

Added: 2026-05-06

[00:02:02][music] [music] >> This complicated area contains various types of channels, pits, and fractures.

[00:03:17]Scientists can determine the relative ages of the pits and channels based on which features crosscut others. Older channels appear smooth-edged and shallow. Younger channels and pits are deeper and more sharp-edged, as well as less sinuous than the shallower channels.

[00:03:35]But what caused this array of various channels and [music] intersecting pits?

[00:03:40]This region is covered in vast lava flows. The collapse [music] pits here may be collapsed lava tubes or where overlying rock drained in avoids created by extensional faulting. [music] The older, smoother channel that seems to source from this region may have carried an outflow of groundwater. It continues on for over 100 km.

[00:04:02]The orientation and shapes of these features [music] make an interesting geological puzzle.

[00:06:16]Although Mars' atmosphere is very thin, >> [music] >> but much like Earth, the red planet does have clouds silently gracing the pinkish-colored skies.

[00:06:27]Recent studies have shown that vaporizing meteors play a big role in cloud formation on Mars.

[00:06:34]No matter what planet you're on, physics remains the same. For clouds, they form only around a seed of some sort, particles like a fleck of dust or salt around which water molecules can condense. On Earth, due to its thick atmosphere and strong air currents, it's possible to find these lightweight particles throughout the atmosphere forming clouds at different [music] altitudes.

[00:06:58]On Mars, however, this process is more difficult [music] due to its vastly thinner atmosphere, which causes a lack of those kinds of particles in the middle atmosphere.

[00:07:09]So, that's where meteors come in.

[00:07:11]>> [music] >> When small meteors hit Mars' atmosphere, they burn up just as they do in Earth's atmosphere. As a result, [music] a lot of fine dust is created, the particles of which can serve as the needed seeds for clouds [music] to form at high altitudes.

[00:07:27]The study also shows that interplanetary dust can create Martian clouds, but there is still a limit on what kinds of clouds due to the extreme [music] thinness of Mars' atmosphere. Pretty much all Martian clouds are wispy and cotton candy-like, very similar to cirrus clouds on Earth. You don't see the big, puffy clouds that are often seen on Earth.

[00:07:48]Making clouds from meteoric dust [music] isn't unheard of. Earth also has clouds formed from meteoric dust called noctilucent clouds. They're the highest clouds in the atmosphere at about [music] 50 mi altitude. They can be seen after the sun has set, but are still reflecting sunlight, giving them a [music] bright blue glow.

[00:08:09]While some Martian clouds are composed of water vapor [music] ice and others are carbon dioxide ice, they are too tenuous and the atmosphere too thin for rain to ever occur.

[00:09:41]The Compact Reconnaissance Imaging [music] Spectrometer for Mars multispectral mapping data show strong potential [music] olivine signatures in a bright unit in Solis Planum, which is located in the Thaumasia [music] region of Mars. These regions are among the highest terrain on Mars outside [music] of Tharsis volcanoes and and the area here is penetrated by a few [music] impact craters. This potentially exposes compositional stratigraphy.

[00:10:08]The occurrence of olivine on the surface of Mars has posed for researchers a fascinating question of how long it has been there [music] and what that means about Martian climate history.

[00:10:19]Olivine and pyroxene tell the story of [music] volcanism with differences in the chemical composition of the solidified lavas representing [music] the evolution of the temperature and pressure inside the red planet. Some of the most pristine olivines [music] are found around impact craters like this one that have excavated very ancient samples of the mantle from below the crust.

[00:10:43]Most of the olivine-rich surfaces are associated with a global lava flooding event around 3.7 billion years ago when magma erupted onto the surface [music] through fractures in the floors of impact craters forming lava seas similar to the lunar mare.

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