While Santa is getting ready for Christmas on Earth at the North Pole of the earth, angels enter the spirit of the holidays The south pole of Mars. A spacecraft saw an “angelic figure” and a large heart at the Martian South Pole, just a week before Christmas.
This week, the European Space Agency’s Mars Express high-resolution stereo camera captured “the defined wings of an angelic figure, complete with a halo,” as well as a large heart next to it. The pair of festive silhouettes appears bright red, in stark contrast to the light brown color of the Martian sand that surrounds them.
Björn Schreiner 2020 @ FU Berlin
According to the space agency, the dark color is due to the composition of sand dunes, which are made up of minerals also found on Earth, such as pyroxene and olivine.
The south pole itself, which is currently facing summer, is located to the right of the etheric scene, just outside the frame. During the Martian winter, the region will be covered in an ice cap with a thickness of miles and a width of 250 miles – but, at this time, ice shops are at their lowest annual levels.
Officials said the angel’s hand, which appears to be reaching the left, is probably a large sublimation pit – a depression on the planet’s surface that forms as ice turns to gas in the summer months.
Björn Schreiner 2020 @ FU Berlin
The angel’s head and height appear to have formed when a celestial object struck the planet, revealing underground layers that provide a glimpse into the long history of Mars. The heart is the result of a line of rocks that formed due to erosion.
The scenic landscape also features Martian dust devils to the left of the figure. Dust devils, common on the red planet, form as strong winds lift dust from the surface.
The south pole of Mars has been in the spotlight in recent months after scientists detected it three new underground lakes – and the possibility of many others – indicating the potential for microbial life.