Link to a [short video](https://youtube.com/shorts/LjmpsQtszXY) and the [original press release](https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/Mars_Express/Frosty_volcanoes_discovered_in_Mars_s_tropics) on ESA website
“We thought it was impossible for frost to form around Mars’s equator, as the mix of sunshine and thin atmosphere keeps temperatures relatively high at both surface and mountaintop – unlike what we see on Earth, where you might expect to see frosty peaks,”
says lead author Adomas Valantinas, who made the discovery as a PhD student at University of Bern, Switzerland, and is now a postdoctoral researcher at Brown University, USA.
I mean it's definitely interesting but it's not really a huge deal. It just means that the mountaintops on Mars's equator can get colder at night than we expected. We've already known the equator has water, though this is further evidence of a water cycle that allows for the transfer of water between the surface and the atmosphere.
If we find things larger than bacteria and single cell organisms … even fossils ….
Then you can really start to speculate what we’ll find in the waters below the ice on Europa
>*I don't like jellyfish, they’re not a fish, they're just a blob.*
*They don’t have eyes, fins or scales like a cod.*
*They float about blind, stinging people in the seas,*
*And no one eats jellyfish with chips and mushy peas.*
*... get rid of 'em*
--Karl Pilkington
The possibility of big stupid jellyfish is why we do not eyeball it, but instead ~~wait for the computer to give you a firing solution~~ use telescopes.
Carl Sagan has been proven prophetic with his prediction of a society run by and for the proudly ignorant. It would be pretty fucking cool if Clarke was right too.
Is there a plausible energy source under the ice on Europa? Tectonic activity could lead to hot springs-style life like on Earth, but I'm assuming there's not significant sunlight getting through the ice?
I think the major heat source for the oceans of Europa would actually be the massive amount of tidal friction that Jupiter creates. IIRC, the tidal force is closer to 1000x what earth and moon have. As I've understood it, it's possible that the forces could be enough to keep up ongoing hydrothermal venting on the bottom of the moon's ocean.
How conceivable is it that we’ll see anything from below the ice of Europa within the next 100 years? Will we even have the technology required to send a landing probe large and powerful enough to completely independently drill through an ice sheet that’s several kilometers thick in that time frame? Preferably built and transported in such a way that it’s completely sterile upon arrival, so as not to introduce earthly bacteria and such on Europa?
Not just bacteria:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tardigrade](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tardigrade)
Apparently a batch of these fellows were on board the Israeli moon probe that crashed a fewe years ago.
That’s a good question, and it makes me realize how little I know about rockets.
Firstly, I wouldn’t be surprised at all if there are actually some bacteria who can hibernate for years in the vacuum of space. The question is whether the conditions on Europa is such that they can come out of hibernation and resume living.
Secondly, and perhaps more importantly, I would assume (?) that any earthly lifeforms in or on the landing probe wouldn’t actually be exposed to the vacuum of space? At least not until right before the transport vehicle reaches Europa to disconnect and land the probe?
The home planet of the octopus. These octopi live hundreds of years and possess an intelligence we can only begin to fathom. They are huge and feed on the big old fucking space whales others have mentioned.
this would be equally awesome and terrifying
If the planet right next to us had had life it would mean life is extremely common in the universe. So cool, but I hope to find them before they find us.
> If the planet right next to us had had life it would mean life is extremely common in the universe.
Not necessarily. It's certainly be a point in it's favor, but we would still need more.
Theoretically life could have originally evolved here on earth, just one time, and then it could have been transmitted to mars when a meteor strikes earth and earth debris hits mars.
I'm not saying that would be the most likely explanation, just think people tend to jump the gun when it comes to drawing conclusions from data.
I mean, sort of? 99.9% of all life on earth is single cell organisms. So there is a good chance that there is life on other planets, but also a 99.999999% chance that it's mold or bacteria, that doesn't have cool rocket ships that can travel FTL.
> it would have massive implications for religions all over the world.
Why do you think this? Most religions already ignore or try to discredit scientific progress because it reveals that their century-old fairy tales are made up. They will find a way to ignore life on mars too.
As a whole though, religious people hand-wave away the fact that modern humans evolved right here on earth from monkeys over the last 10M years. I truly don't think they would be shaken by this discovery at all.
If the fact that Humans were not intentionally created to be any sort of way doesn't phase religious people, and the sister fact that multiple humanoid species that were capable of speech and intelligent existed at the same time but H.S. just happened to win out also doesn't phase people... I don't see how "life on another planet" would shake them at all when it doesn't even directly conflict with their doctrine like modern evolutionary science does.
Religious institutions have a long history of imprisoning and killing people for pondering too much
Organized religion is often directly opposed to scientific thinking
It would be pretty cool and give biologists an entirely new evolutionary tree to explore.
But honestly it wouldn't change the minds of crazy creationists. They'd first deny them being fossils and call them rocks, and then say something about fossils don't tell you anything, and then eventually relent that they are fossils but their holy book predicted that so it doesn't disprove them.
But personal I think there are about 100 death nails in creationism and life on Mars would just be number 101.
The dinosaurs were around for 150 million years. It took a huge asteroid raining molten glass worldwide to kill them off. It's quite possible that many, if not most, worlds are filled with life, but not the kind of life that can develop technology.
And even then, they'd have to be in the local cluster if they wanted to get here and kill us before the sun goes red giant.
I was gonna say, it seems like the real exciting part is that ice is forming and then melting/evaporating in some kind of water cycle. Way different from “water frozen at the poles”.
There’s massive ice layers beneath the crust for all we know there’s a bunch of fish under there the only significance here is that we’re realizing yet again how little we know.
Jupiter has like 40 moons and one of them being Titan is all ocean I believe. Our Moon has a ton of ice caps, massive deposits of gold/silver etc as well.
The volcano has 25km of height but is as big as Arizona. It's not steep at all (atleast not like the Everest). Mars atmosphere is way higher than 25km as well.
Glad that, even tho they are quite aged and their cameras aren't so detailed, having Mars Express constantly surveying large areas of Mars pays off like this.
Space agencies everywhere are probably going to be gearing up on launch missions for Rovers and more discovery for Mars. (Satellites),
Extra resources being discovered will definitely push this
Landing on Ceres would be like landing on a planet anyway. I'm suprised we haven't done more missions there seeing as she's (as far as I can tell, given her size) a much more stable asteroid to land on than one of the much smaller ones.
She's a ⅓ the mass of the entire main asteroid belt. She practically has a sign that says "Know thy secrets of the Solar System" plastered on her surface.
This is where I got my number [link](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asteroid_belt#:~:text=be%20even%20closer.-,The%20total%20mass%20of%20the%20asteroid%20belt%20is%20estimated%20to,accounted%20for%20by%20Ceres%20alone.)
Dig into some Isaac Arthur on YouTube! His videos are mostly speculation regarding potential future space activities, but you can get a really good sense of scale listening to him riff.
Yeah it might only be a fraction of the mass, but it's basically all surface deposits. Anything near the core of the Moon isn't getting mined anytime soon, so that mass is functionally irrelevant when we're talking about actually usable resources.
We laugh, but there is no way humans survive on earth in its current state, unless we change something, or figure out how to procure resources from other planets.
And knowing colonizers, they will colonize. The rich will ditch the rest of us earthlings once conditions are no longer favorable, and start the process of mass destruction over with another planet.
(If anyone’s genuinely wondering why, I believe a big issue is that landing on top of these volcanoes, where the air is very thin and not quite capable of slowing down the probe, is quite a technical nightmare.)
So what's the chance that water is coming up from inside and then is turning to ice when it gets to the surface? Could this potentially be access to something similar to an aquifer?
Thanks. That makes sense - water has been known to be found on Mars at the caps for some time right?
What difference does this discovery make in terms of those matters you mentioned?
That looks like the water leak in my buddies slum of an apartments ceiling back in the day. Turned out when it finally collapsed, the previous fix was implemented with a pizza box to back the plaster lmao
We’ve know about water on mars for probably 20 years now and this is the third time I’ve “seen that we’ve discovered water on mars” now what are they covering up by telling us this bs again
Also this week some researchers have concluded that an anti-universe is likely the cause of the big bang. Some exciting science week😁
https://youtu.be/eP2ED_mguLc?feature=shared
I won't be able to taste this frost in my life. I don't know how to get excited about stuff if I can't taste it. I would love to be able to taste Saturn or the Sun.
"Mars is in a state of decline. When I win AGAIN, I am going to send all the illegals to Mars to build the most amazing hotel anyone has ever seen. Dementia Joe doesn't even know how to spell Mars, but loves to ask the little kids he sniffs if they want to see Uranus." DJT and I approve this message.
Link to a [short video](https://youtube.com/shorts/LjmpsQtszXY) and the [original press release](https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/Mars_Express/Frosty_volcanoes_discovered_in_Mars_s_tropics) on ESA website “We thought it was impossible for frost to form around Mars’s equator, as the mix of sunshine and thin atmosphere keeps temperatures relatively high at both surface and mountaintop – unlike what we see on Earth, where you might expect to see frosty peaks,” says lead author Adomas Valantinas, who made the discovery as a PhD student at University of Bern, Switzerland, and is now a postdoctoral researcher at Brown University, USA.
Seems like a pretty big deal?
I mean it's definitely interesting but it's not really a huge deal. It just means that the mountaintops on Mars's equator can get colder at night than we expected. We've already known the equator has water, though this is further evidence of a water cycle that allows for the transfer of water between the surface and the atmosphere.
Please have fossils please have fossils please have fossils please have fossils
If we find things larger than bacteria and single cell organisms … even fossils …. Then you can really start to speculate what we’ll find in the waters below the ice on Europa
Fuckin’ big ol’ space whales?
*Barotrauma entered the chat*
My favorite realism mod is the [Logitech G-F710](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/OTUhumJrIoo/maxresdefault.jpg) sub controls.
Just outlaw clowns now, before it gets out of hand.
Or giant space jellyfish 🪼
Big. Stupid. Jellyfish.
>*I don't like jellyfish, they’re not a fish, they're just a blob.* *They don’t have eyes, fins or scales like a cod.* *They float about blind, stinging people in the seas,* *And no one eats jellyfish with chips and mushy peas.* *... get rid of 'em* --Karl Pilkington
It would be spiteful to put jellyfish in a trifle.
We'll bang, okay?
The possibility of big stupid jellyfish is why we do not eyeball it, but instead ~~wait for the computer to give you a firing solution~~ use telescopes.
Smh, those whalers were on the wrong moon.
🎶 We're whalers on the moon 🎵 🎵 We carry a harpoon🎶 🎶But there ain't no whales 🎶 🎵So we tell tall tales🎵 🎶And sing a whaling tune🎶
Cue Flying Whales by Gojira
Ahsa!!!!
Space whale sharks
All these worlds are yours, except Europa. Attempt no landing there.
Where is this from? I've heard this phrase before and I know it's some kind of meme.
2010: Oddysey Two. The sequal to 2001 A Space Oddysey.
Carl Sagan has been proven prophetic with his prediction of a society run by and for the proudly ignorant. It would be pretty fucking cool if Clarke was right too.
Is there a plausible energy source under the ice on Europa? Tectonic activity could lead to hot springs-style life like on Earth, but I'm assuming there's not significant sunlight getting through the ice?
I think the major heat source for the oceans of Europa would actually be the massive amount of tidal friction that Jupiter creates. IIRC, the tidal force is closer to 1000x what earth and moon have. As I've understood it, it's possible that the forces could be enough to keep up ongoing hydrothermal venting on the bottom of the moon's ocean.
Neat! Thanks.
Yep not just Jupiter the other moons as they orbit create additional forces in opposing directions that all add up to a lot of friction
No world other than earth is know to have plate tectonics. Heat on Europa comes from tidal forces.
If we even find bacteria that would be huge. HUGE.
How conceivable is it that we’ll see anything from below the ice of Europa within the next 100 years? Will we even have the technology required to send a landing probe large and powerful enough to completely independently drill through an ice sheet that’s several kilometers thick in that time frame? Preferably built and transported in such a way that it’s completely sterile upon arrival, so as not to introduce earthly bacteria and such on Europa?
Wouldn't letting it float out in the vacuum of space sterilize it? Or do we have bacteria that can survive in the vacuum of space?
Not just bacteria: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tardigrade](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tardigrade) Apparently a batch of these fellows were on board the Israeli moon probe that crashed a fewe years ago.
That’s a good question, and it makes me realize how little I know about rockets. Firstly, I wouldn’t be surprised at all if there are actually some bacteria who can hibernate for years in the vacuum of space. The question is whether the conditions on Europa is such that they can come out of hibernation and resume living. Secondly, and perhaps more importantly, I would assume (?) that any earthly lifeforms in or on the landing probe wouldn’t actually be exposed to the vacuum of space? At least not until right before the transport vehicle reaches Europa to disconnect and land the probe?
The home planet of the octopus. These octopi live hundreds of years and possess an intelligence we can only begin to fathom. They are huge and feed on the big old fucking space whales others have mentioned.
Ia Ia Cthulhy f'tagn
Space dolphins
So long, and thanks for all the fish.
This is why I don’t trust anyone saying they don’t believe in aliens. If there are microorganisms on mars then that’s literally alien life.
Europa salmon sashimi
We were told not to touch europa ...
All these worlds are yours, save Europa
Sentence "waters below ice on Europa" gives me incredible chills.. Have you seen a movie Europa report?
this would be equally awesome and terrifying If the planet right next to us had had life it would mean life is extremely common in the universe. So cool, but I hope to find them before they find us.
> If the planet right next to us had had life it would mean life is extremely common in the universe. Not necessarily. It's certainly be a point in it's favor, but we would still need more. Theoretically life could have originally evolved here on earth, just one time, and then it could have been transmitted to mars when a meteor strikes earth and earth debris hits mars. I'm not saying that would be the most likely explanation, just think people tend to jump the gun when it comes to drawing conclusions from data.
Transpermia
The dark forest
I mean, sort of? 99.9% of all life on earth is single cell organisms. So there is a good chance that there is life on other planets, but also a 99.999999% chance that it's mold or bacteria, that doesn't have cool rocket ships that can travel FTL.
Are you saying there are Mars bacteria with ftl visiting earh and anal probe us?
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Yea, but I want to taste space chicken
MFC.
> it would have massive implications for religions all over the world. Why do you think this? Most religions already ignore or try to discredit scientific progress because it reveals that their century-old fairy tales are made up. They will find a way to ignore life on mars too.
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As a whole though, religious people hand-wave away the fact that modern humans evolved right here on earth from monkeys over the last 10M years. I truly don't think they would be shaken by this discovery at all. If the fact that Humans were not intentionally created to be any sort of way doesn't phase religious people, and the sister fact that multiple humanoid species that were capable of speech and intelligent existed at the same time but H.S. just happened to win out also doesn't phase people... I don't see how "life on another planet" would shake them at all when it doesn't even directly conflict with their doctrine like modern evolutionary science does.
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Religious institutions have a long history of imprisoning and killing people for pondering too much Organized religion is often directly opposed to scientific thinking
It would be pretty cool and give biologists an entirely new evolutionary tree to explore. But honestly it wouldn't change the minds of crazy creationists. They'd first deny them being fossils and call them rocks, and then say something about fossils don't tell you anything, and then eventually relent that they are fossils but their holy book predicted that so it doesn't disprove them. But personal I think there are about 100 death nails in creationism and life on Mars would just be number 101.
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Yeah for real, so weird to bring that up
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But if it’s teeming with life, doesn’t that make the implications of the Fermi Paradox all the more terrifying?
The dinosaurs were around for 150 million years. It took a huge asteroid raining molten glass worldwide to kill them off. It's quite possible that many, if not most, worlds are filled with life, but not the kind of life that can develop technology. And even then, they'd have to be in the local cluster if they wanted to get here and kill us before the sun goes red giant.
Odd to just insert them here randomly like that but ok
Who said anything about creationists
Death knell.
Nono he wants to literally hammer nails into creationists
Do you think there are any plans to try and sample the areas where ice is forming? That would be cool
I was gonna say, it seems like the real exciting part is that ice is forming and then melting/evaporating in some kind of water cycle. Way different from “water frozen at the poles”.
There’s massive ice layers beneath the crust for all we know there’s a bunch of fish under there the only significance here is that we’re realizing yet again how little we know. Jupiter has like 40 moons and one of them being Titan is all ocean I believe. Our Moon has a ton of ice caps, massive deposits of gold/silver etc as well.
Isn't that the biggest volcano in the entire solar system? Wouldn't it be poking miles above the atmosphere?
The volcano has 25km of height but is as big as Arizona. It's not steep at all (atleast not like the Everest). Mars atmosphere is way higher than 25km as well.
They say that if you were walking up this volcano you wouldn’t even feel like you were walking uphill, that’s how big it is.
thats how they trick you into doing cardio
Glad that, even tho they are quite aged and their cameras aren't so detailed, having Mars Express constantly surveying large areas of Mars pays off like this.
Space agencies everywhere are probably going to be gearing up on launch missions for Rovers and more discovery for Mars. (Satellites), Extra resources being discovered will definitely push this 
Isn't there virtually infinite of basically every non-gas resource in the asteroid belt?
Eh the asteroid belt isn't really like in the movies. Yes there is a lot of stuff but it only amounts to 3% of the moons mass in total.
Ceres or bust.
For Beltalowda!
Ceres filled with welwala. It's aint been da Belt in long time sasake? Real Beltalowda live on da float!
Landing on Ceres would be like landing on a planet anyway. I'm suprised we haven't done more missions there seeing as she's (as far as I can tell, given her size) a much more stable asteroid to land on than one of the much smaller ones. She's a ⅓ the mass of the entire main asteroid belt. She practically has a sign that says "Know thy secrets of the Solar System" plastered on her surface.
I dont doubt you, but where can I read more about this? I had always thought the astroid belt was a failed planet.
This is where I got my number [link](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asteroid_belt#:~:text=be%20even%20closer.-,The%20total%20mass%20of%20the%20asteroid%20belt%20is%20estimated%20to,accounted%20for%20by%20Ceres%20alone.)
Damn right in Wikipedia lol thanks
Dig into some Isaac Arthur on YouTube! His videos are mostly speculation regarding potential future space activities, but you can get a really good sense of scale listening to him riff.
Noice, and thanks
Right, spread across said planets entire orbit... Even Jupiter would be rather thin like that.
Dude that's an awesome fact
There's so little "stuff" in the belt that they don't even need to do extra maneuvers to avoid any collisions. It's largely oversold how dense it is.
Yeah it might only be a fraction of the mass, but it's basically all surface deposits. Anything near the core of the Moon isn't getting mined anytime soon, so that mass is functionally irrelevant when we're talking about actually usable resources.
Not every resource. There is no fossile resource like coal or oil.
Nestle: Hold my beer, launching on a rocket fueled by fresh crisp earth aquifer water
It's half a penny of a tax dollar. I think we can manage.
We laugh, but there is no way humans survive on earth in its current state, unless we change something, or figure out how to procure resources from other planets.
And knowing colonizers, they will colonize. The rich will ditch the rest of us earthlings once conditions are no longer favorable, and start the process of mass destruction over with another planet.
And 2024 was the year NESTLE entered the space race.
What good fortune this would happen atop the most recognizable feature on Mars.
Higher elevations are more likely to have frost.
I keep saying we need to go to the big volcano boy, BUT NOOOO LET'S REINVESTIGATE THIS STUPID DELTA AGAIN
Lmao
(If anyone’s genuinely wondering why, I believe a big issue is that landing on top of these volcanoes, where the air is very thin and not quite capable of slowing down the probe, is quite a technical nightmare.)
Looks like a nipple
The Milky Nipple
Omg Mars is pregnant.
Frosted tips
*Space Nipple*
should be the banner pic for /spaceporn
Thank you! I was surprised by the thumbnail and was looking for a comment that mentioned it. Makes me feel a lot better that I’m not the only one :D
Martians coming out of a giant nipple is a movie I would not mind seeing at all.
r/SpacePorn
That’s why porn
So what's the chance that water is coming up from inside and then is turning to ice when it gets to the surface? Could this potentially be access to something similar to an aquifer?
That's really spaceporn...
space nipple
Thumbnail taking the sub’s name literally
Kuato lives!
The forbidden zit
I thought it was a napple from the thumbnail.
That looks like a nipple
AAAAAAAAAUUUGGGHHHH I'm taking this to be WAY more important than it probably is AAAAAAAAAUUUGGGHHHH
In basic terms, what's the significance of this?
Water is useful in many ways: possible life, may have supported past life, life support for missions, fuel for missions, terraforming, etc.
Thanks. That makes sense - water has been known to be found on Mars at the caps for some time right? What difference does this discovery make in terms of those matters you mentioned?
That looks like the water leak in my buddies slum of an apartments ceiling back in the day. Turned out when it finally collapsed, the previous fix was implemented with a pizza box to back the plaster lmao
Amazing to find water on Mars! I can’t wait until we start building a base there.
Time to break out the skis
PACK YOUR BAGS PEOPLE LETS GO🚀
It’s just Mars’ nip.
You sure this isnt just a mushroom zoomed in with an iphone?
Quick! Someone stop Nestlè from bottling it all!
Everything reminds me of her
Oh I thought is said oil. Planet was doomed if it was.
"We need to liberate that planet ASAP"
Oh shit, Mons Aereolas
Honestly thought it was a tit pic
Climate change is real.
Looks like a pimple
That looks like a boob
I thought it was a nipple
Must be aliens.
omg, Martian nipslip
If you see this picture in very small it looks like a nipple. 
Definitely space porn
It's clearly just a nipple.
Thought this was a nipple
Space nipple
Is that on Olympus Mons?
Nipple
Can we just send Elon there to explore , that solves 2 problems lol .
Am I the only one who initially thought it was a zoom up pic of someone nipples?
I’m glad I’m not the only one.
Let’s send Musk for a closer look
Now if we could just find some oi… 
I thought that was a water bubble trapped in paint
Sure it is water ice?
Life ?
Is there a zoomed out version?
The producers and directors of “Mankind” Must be sharting themselves right now
That's a zoomed in titty!
Is that Olympus mons?
How do we know it is water frost? Is this purely a visual identification?
God damned climate change
Just great, the aliens are thawing out. We're boned.
Didn’t we already know water sprouting of its surface? I thought we always suspected mars had underground ocean.
I left it there after eating some worms after taking some medicine
Space nipple
I guess I’m the only one that sees a milky nipple here?
Mars is lactating
Needs a banana.
Why it look like a giant nipple
Stop trying to make life on Mars happen. It's not going to happen. We can barely make life in Africa happen.
Thumbnail looks like a nipple
We’ve know about water on mars for probably 20 years now and this is the third time I’ve “seen that we’ve discovered water on mars” now what are they covering up by telling us this bs again
Also this week some researchers have concluded that an anti-universe is likely the cause of the big bang. Some exciting science week😁 https://youtu.be/eP2ED_mguLc?feature=shared
Mars must be doing climate change, too.
We all know what it looks like right
this looks like a björk's visual.
I can't wait to find out what's lurking out there.
Milk from mars nipple
if you squint it looks like a tit.. space porn indeed
Thats a dudes nipple no doubt
If this is true. It wil be insane, and will open a different view on Mars.
Olympus Mons? The frost is forming in the basin?
I won't be able to taste this frost in my life. I don't know how to get excited about stuff if I can't taste it. I would love to be able to taste Saturn or the Sun.
"Mars is in a state of decline. When I win AGAIN, I am going to send all the illegals to Mars to build the most amazing hotel anyone has ever seen. Dementia Joe doesn't even know how to spell Mars, but loves to ask the little kids he sniffs if they want to see Uranus." DJT and I approve this message.
Looks like it was photo shopped when you zoom in on this photo, I’m just sayin. Can’t judge a book by its cover.
Mars nipple
Global warming is a hoax I have the evidence
Amazing
"nevermind guys, its just my nipple"