Geyser Season on Mars

This Oct. 29, 2018, image from the HiRISE camera on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter captures geysers of gas and dust that occur in springtime in the South Polar region of Mars. As the Sun rises higher in the sky, the thick coating of carbon dioxide ice that accumulated over the winter begins to warm and then turn to vapor. Sunlight penetrates through the transparent ice and is absorbed at the base of the ice layer. The gas that forms because of the warming escapes through weaknesses in the ice and erupts in the form of geysers.

HiRISE, or the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment, is a powerful camera that takes pictures covering vast areas of Martian terrain while being able to see features as small as a kitchen table.

Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona