![\"The](\"https:\/\/wp-assets.futurism.com\/2018\/12\/ice-filled-crater-mars-300x158.jpg\")
<\/div>Martian Wonderland<\/h2>
Christmas is always white at Mars’s Korolev crater.<\/p>
In fact, every day is a snowy expanse of white — the 50-mile-wide impact crater is filled with ice year-round due to the cold air trapped within it.<\/p>
See for yourself. On Thursday, the European Space Agency (ESA) released<\/a> several icy<\/a>, snowy images<\/a> of the crater, and they’re stunning enough to adorn the cover of a Martian Christmas card.<\/p> The ESA generated the images of Mars’s ice-filled crater using data from its Mars Express probe<\/a>, which entered Mars’s orbit — appropriately enough — on Christmas Day in 2003.<\/p> To produce the images, the ESA had to combine data from five Mars Express orbits, with the most recent taking place on April 4, 2018. The High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC)<\/a>, an instrument capable of capturing images in three dimensions and in color, recorded the data.<\/p> The ice at the center of the Martian crater is more than a mile thick. In total, Korolev contains 530 cubic miles of water ice. That’s more than four times the volume of Lake Erie<\/a>.<\/p> The fact that we even know such a massive ice-filled crater exists on Mars is remarkable. After all, less than two decades ago, we weren’t even sure the Red Planet had any form of water<\/a> at all. Now we have the technology in place to see a massive crater full of it — in stunning detail.<\/p> READ MORE:<\/strong> Mars Express Beams Back Images of Ice-Filled Korolev Crater<\/a> [The Guardian<\/em>]<\/p> More on Mars water: Mars Used To Be Dotted With Life-Friendly Lakes<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p> The post See Stunning New Images of a Mars Crater Full of Mile-Thick Ice<\/a> appeared first on Futurism<\/a>.<\/p> See original here: Martian Wonderland Christmas is always white at Mars\u2019s\u00a0Korolev crater. In fact, every day is a snowy expanse of\u00a0white \u2014 the 50-mile-wide impact crater is filled with ice year-round due to the cold air trapped within it Continue reading Express Delivery<\/h2>
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Water World<\/h2>
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/wp-assets.futurism.com\/2018\/12\/Plan_view_of_Korolev_crater-1200x1381.jpg\")
See Stunning New Images of a Mars Crater Full of Mile-Thick Ice<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"