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Mars polar cap mystery solved

22 September 2008

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This is a mosaic of images taken by the Mars Express’s Visible and Infrared Mineralogical Mapping Spectrometer, OMEGA. It shows the residual south polar cap at the end of northern winter on the Red Planet. The cap appears clearly asymmetric, its centre being displaced by 3° from the geographic pole.

Credits: ESA/ Image Courtesy of F. Altieri (IFSI-INAF) and the OMEGA team

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An artist's impression of Mars Express. The spacecraft left Earth for Mars on 2 June 2003. It reached its destination after a six-month journey, and has been investigating the planet since early 2004.

Credits: ESA - D. Ducros

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