Receding ice

Ice capping the northern hemisphere terrain of Mars slowly recedes as summer progresses, revealing the underlying surface.

This scene was captured by the CaSSIS camera onboard ESA’s ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter as it flew over the ice-coated Korolev crater on 1 November 2019. Korolev crater is an 80 km-wide crater in the northern latitudes of Mars that contains a massive ice sheet in its centre – this image focuses on one of the crater walls.

At this time, it was mid-summer in the northern hemisphere of Mars: the carbon dioxide ice cover had retreated, revealing the permanent water ice deposits much more clearly, along with details of surfaces previously covered in ice.

The image is centred at 164.90ºE/72.02ºN and was taken on 1 November 2019. The scale is indicated on the image.