Mars starts a new year: avalanches, icy explosions and dunes [Video]

• Spring on Mars brings explosive changes. As temperatures rise, the Martian northern hemisphere experiences dramatic events such as frost avalanches, carbon dioxide gas geysers, and winds reshaping polar ice caps and dunes.
• Unlike Earth, Mars’ ice sublimates directly into gas. The sublimation causes explosive activity like “spiders” (scour marks left after ice sublimation) and dark fans of material from gas geysers.
• The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has been crucial for studying these dynamic processes for nearly 20 years. It captures unprecedented images and insights into the red planet’s surface evolution.

NASA/JPL published this original article on December 20, 2024. Edits by EarthSky.

Mars is beginning another 687-day-long year

While we’re celebrating New Year’s Eve here on Earth, Mars scientists are ahead of the game: The red planet completed a trip around the sun on November 12, 2024, prompting a few researchers to raise a toast.

But the Martian year, which is 687 Earth days, ends in a very different way in the planet’s northern hemisphere than it does in Earth’s …