http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/s ... 849802.eceAccording to this report in todays' Times, NASA was watching five newly-formed craters on Mars and saw ice at the bottom of them. This is a lot further from the Martian poles than any previous observation of water ice on Mars, leading them to think that there is a pretty extensive sheet of ice beneath the surface. They reckon it is 99% water, too, rather than a water/dust mixture.
Quote:
Shane Byrne, of the University of Arizona, a member of the HiRISE team, said of the Mars findings: “This ice is a relic of a more humid climate from perhaps just several thousand years ago. We knew there was ice below the surface at high latitudes of Mars, but we find that it extends far closer to the equator than you would think, based on Mars’s climate today.
The Times is reporting research that just came out in the journal
Science.