10/06/2024 (Agence Europe) – On Monday 10 June, the European Space Agency’s (ESA) ExoMars and Mars Express announced that missions had spotted water frost for the first time near the equator of Mars, a part of the planet where frost was thought to be impossible. The frost is at the top of the Tharsis volcanoes, the highest volcanoes not only on Mars, but in the entire solar system. The frost patches are present for a few hours around sunrise before evaporating in the sunlight. Despite being thin - probably only one hundredth of a millimetre thick (as thick as a human hair) - they cover a vast area, according to a press release issued by the Agency. The amount of frost represents around 150,000 tonnes of water passing from the surface to the atmosphere every day during the cold seasons, according to ESA. (CG)