Strange Things Are Afoot at Mars's North Pole

There are plenty of big differences between the third and fourth planets from the sun, but Earth and Mars do have plenty in common as well — polar ice caps among them. When the likes of Robert Peary and Matthew Henson explored Earth’s North Pole, they did so by land. If any would-be explorers plan to do the same on Mars, though, they might need to do a bit of digging to carry out their mission. Why? It turns out that Mars’s ice caps are altering the position of the planet’s North Pole.

That’s one of the big takeaways from a recent article by John Timmer at Ars Technica. As Timmer explains, scientists believe that Martian polar ice began forming around 10 million years ago, and that its buildup is gradually pushing the planet’s North Pole lower and lower.

It’s an interesting observation in its own right, and also makes for some useful comparisons in how that polar ice both is and is not similar to the kind found on Earth. The ever-lowering Martian North Pole is also useful for scientists seeking to better understand the structure of Mars itself. Timmer points to a paper published in Nature last month that used a number of different modeling techniques to explore the planet’s “interior viscosity structure.”

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Mars isn’t the only planet in the solar system where recent findings in the polar regions are deepening our knowledge there. In recent years, NASA missions and the Hubble Space Telescope have provided more information on — and some striking images of — the aurorae that form around Jupiter’s polar regions. It’s another way of expanding our knowledge of planetary systems beyond that of the pale blue dot we call home.