European scientists identify active glacier on Mars

LONDON, Dec. 19 (Xinhua) -- European scientists have identified for the first time a probable active glacier on Mars.

The icy feature has been spotted by scientists in images from the European Space Agency's Mars Express spacecraft, BBC reported Wednesday.

"If it was an image of Earth, I would say 'glacier' right away. We have not yet been able to see the spectral signature of water. But we will fly over it in the coming months and take measurements. On the glacial ridges we can see white tips, which can only be freshly exposed ice," Gerhard Neukum, chief scientist on the spacecraft's High Resolution Stereo Camera told BBC News.

Ancient glaciers, many millions of years old, have been seen before on the Red Planet, but the young active glacier may only be several thousand years old and appears in the Deuteronilus Mensae region between Mars' rugged southern highlands and the flat northern lowlands, Neukum said.

This is found in very few places on the Red Planet because as soon ice is exposed to the Martian environment, it sublimates or turns from a solid state directly into gas.

In Deuteronilus Mensae, water came up from underground in the last 10,000 to 100,000 years, according to estimates by Neukum from the Free University in Berlin, Germany, who said "That means it is an active glacier now. This is unique, and there are probably more." The water subsequently froze over and glaciers developed, the researcher explained.

Glacial features have been seen before on the Olympus Mons volcano. But these are thought to be about four million years old.

Glacial features would be prime locations for robotic rovers to look for evidence of life on Mars, Neukum said.

The European Space Agency celebrated last month the unmanned probe Mars Express' five thousandth orbit of the Red Planet. The probe arrived at Mars on Dec. 25, 2003.