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Article: Mars: a frosty finding. (carbon dioxide ice clouds in atmosphere) (Brief Article)
- Article from:
- Science News
- Article date:
- March 27, 1993
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1993 Science Service, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Astronomers have found the first pictorial evidence suggesting that clouds of carbon dioxide ice reside in the Martian atmosphere.
Several theories about the evolution of Mars' climate, which many planetary scientists believe was warmer and wetter in the past, require carbon dioxide gas to condense into ice in the atmosphere, notes James E Bell III of NASA's Ames Research Center in Mountain View, Calif. But the only previous indication that carbon dioxide ice clouds exist on Mars came from data gathered by infrared spectrometers aboard the Mariner 6 and 7 spacecraft, which flew past the planet in 1969.
The new, ground-based observations seem to confirm ...