Mars 360: the north pole

Enjoy views of the martian north pole from all angles in this new animation from ESA’s Mars Express. The ice cap has a diameter of about 1000 km and consists of many thin layers of ice mixed with dust that extend to a depth of around 2 km below the cap. The prominent gap in the ice cap is a 318 km-long, 2 km-deep chasm called Chasma Boreale. The layers result from variations in the orbit and rotation of Mars that affect the amount of sunlight received at the poles, and thus the amount of melti