MARS EXPRESS CATCHES A GIANT CRATER FULL OF ICE ON MARS...

This combination of five photographs obtained by the ESA from the orbit of the red planet show the Korolev crater.

The European Space Agency (ESA, for its acronym in English) has published the image of the Korolev crater of Mars covered with ice.

It is a depression 80 kilometers wide that is found in the frigid latitudes located north of the red planet and contains a layer of ice 1.8 kilometers deep throughout the year.

That mass does not melt during the Martian summer because the great ice plain creates a 'cold trap' that cools the air that moves over it, makes it descend and manages to form a 'cold shield', according to the ESA.

The snapshot is made up of different photographs that the Mars Express probe, which that space agency launched 15 years ago, captured in five different overflights. Thus, this combination allows obtaining a more complete perspective of the place and its surroundings from different angles.

The Korolev crater bears the name of Sergei Korolyov, the scientist who led the space program of the Soviet Union and sent the first satellite and the first human into space.

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