- Strong winds have carved intricate shapes into the south pole of Martian, embodying what looks like an angel and a giant red heart.
- Images of the shapes were exhibited by the European Space Agency,
- The south pole of Mars is very wet, with melting water lying under frozen crust, so understanding the forces operating in the region could unravel some of the planet’s mysteries.
Many countries here on Earth are holiday time, and if you follow the religious meaning of different dates on the calendar you may be familiar with seeing angels connected to these events. Based on new images released by the European Space Agency, it looks as if Mars decided to play this year, with various forces carving shapes near the south pole of the a planet that looks very much like an angel and a heavy red heart.
Researchers are exploring the interesting shapes not because they look like something you would see on a holiday wall here on Earth, but because of the interesting events that made them possible. . Of course, if you’re in a holiday mood, you can just imagine that Mars was decorating us.
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So what exactly caused these shapes to form? Well, it’s really complicated. The huge “halo” around the angel’s head is actually an impact crack that created the head and spread material to the surrounding area. At the same time, some of the other lower regions as a result of ice turn to gas, creating a depression.
ESA explains:
The ‘angel’ and ‘heart’ are both made up of various interesting features. First, the angel’s hand is thought to be a large sublimation pit, seen as if it were reaching to the left, a type of feature that forms as ice turns to gas and leaving empty pockets and depressions in the surface of the planet (a process that often happens as the seasons change). Sublimation patches have been observed on other planets in the Solar System, such as Pluto, and can also be seen scattered across the earth on the right.
Once a dry, dusty desert that scientists once assumed, Mars has proven dynamic weather in many of its regions, with water ice and salt water near its poles. If the theory is that Mars once had water wealth, well, water, it is possible that life existed for a long time. Unfortunately, it is also possible that Mars was a rocky, aquatic world that never got the materials it needed to create life.
Future missions, including NASA’s Perseverance rover currently on its way to Mars, could shed light on the history (or lack thereof) of life on Mars, but for the moment at least we know there is a heart and an angel.
Mike Wehner has been reporting on technology and video games for the past decade, covering news and trends in VR, wearables, smartphones, and the future of tech. Mike was most recently a Tech Editor at The Daily Dot, and has appeared in USA Today, Time.com, and in countless web and print outlets. His love of narrating only second place on his game thesis.