The European Space Agency (ESA) is Europe’s gateway to space. Its mission is to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space continues to deliver benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world.
Find out more about space activities in our 23 Member States, and understand how ESA works together with their national agencies, institutions and organisations.
Exploring our Solar System and unlocking the secrets of the Universe
Go to topicProtecting life and infrastructure on Earth and in orbit
Go to topicUsing space to benefit citizens and meet future challenges on Earth
Go to topicMaking space accessible and developing the technologies for the future
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These images, generated thanks to Martian Global Climate Models (GCMs), provide a comparison between the water-ice accumulation rates in two different periods (present day and 21 500 years ago), corresponding to inversed planetary precession periods.
Present-day map shows a net accumulation of water-ice only at the South Pole itself, where the existence of a CO2 cold-trap forces a local and permanent deposition of water-ice. In the inversed situation (21 500 years ago), the CO2 cold trap has been removed and the pattern of accumulation is only controlled by the precipitation/sublimation of water vapour on an annual average.