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Home ESA’s (the European Space Agency’s) Mars Express flies over the Red Planet in this illustration. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory supplied the receiver for the mission’s Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionospheric Sounding (MARSIS) instrument. (ESA/NASA/JPL-Caltech) ESA’s (the European Space Agency’s) Mars Express flies over the Red Planet in this illustration. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory supplied the receiver for the mission’s Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionospheric Sounding (MARSIS) instrument. (ESA/NASA/JPL-Caltech)

ESA’s (the European Space Agency’s) Mars Express flies over the Red Planet in this illustration. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory supplied the receiver for the mission’s Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionospheric Sounding (MARSIS) instrument. (ESA/NASA/JPL-Caltech)

ESA’s (the European Space Agency’s) Mars Express flies over the Red Planet in this illustration. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory supplied the receiver for the mission’s Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionospheric Sounding (MARSIS) instrument. (ESA/NASA/JPL-Caltech)

ESA’s (the European Space Agency’s) Mars Express flies over the Red Planet in this illustration. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory supplied the receiver for the mission’s Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionospheric Sounding (MARSIS) instrument. (ESA/NASA/JPL-Caltech)

The bright white region of this image shows the icy cap that covers Mars’ south pole, composed of frozen water and frozen carbon dioxide. ESA’s Mars Express imaged this area of Mars on Dec. 17, 2012, in infrared, green and blue light, using its High Resolution Stereo Camera. (ESA/DLR/FU Berlin/Bill Dunford)
The colored dots represent sites where bright radar reflections have been spotted by ESA’s Mars Express orbiter at Mars’ south polar cap. Such reflections were previously interpreted as subsurface liquid water. Their prevalence and proximity to the frigid surface suggests they may be something else. (ESA/NASA/JPL-Caltech)