Let it snow (MRO Mars photo show how rocky world have seasons)

[Kathryn Kando]

This just came in from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO):

Colour, snow on mountain tops (no water, but snowy) - how nice. Can I haz seasons please (not talking ELWs here... just our rocky and icy friends.)

 

[varonica]

This just came in from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO):

http://cdn2.spiegel.de/images/image-1181285-860_galleryfree-smvb-1181285.jpg

Colour, snow on mountain tops (no water, but snowy) - how nice. Can I haz seasons please (not talking ELWs here... just our rocky and icy friends.)

Mars has an atmosphere, I think you will find an atmosphere is essential for snow, and since all of our current rocky and icy friends have no atmosphere I think we will just have to wait..

 

[Kathryn Kando]

It is frozen carbon dioxide you see here on Mars, AFAIK there is no actuall snowfall out of clouds requiring atomosphere involved. There is also research on the latter "real snowfall" on Mars that definitly needs atomsophere (microclouds very low are possible).

In ED all landable icy rocks have a lot of water and snow - if the soil would be more loose we could really dash through the snow. Some rocky worlds are cold enough to have frozen mountain tops. And the colour of the Mars surface seen in the photo speaks his own story. No atmosphere needed for all that.