Exploratour - Comparing the Surfaces of Earth and Mars

Polar Caps

The table below shows ice at the polar caps of Earth and Mars.

Earth


Antarctica from space.
Image courtesy of NASA/JPL

Earth has polar caps at the north and south poles. The image above shows ice at the south pole of the Earth, taken by the Galileo spacecraft on December 8, 1990. This is the first picture of the whole continent taken nearly at once from space.

Mars


Ice cliffs at the Martian north pole.
Click on image for full size (55K jpeg)
Image courtesy of NASA

Mars also has polar caps at the north and south poles. The image above shows a close up of ice at the north pole of Mars taken by the Mariner mission.

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