Mars' southern pole houses a ice cap of carbon-diaoxide that sublimates every year during the martian summer. When the carbon dioxide sublimates it converts directly from dry ice to its gaseous form of matter. What I find most interesting is the gold dust-like substance that surrounds the permanetly frozen portions of the caps. Currently we have no idea what this substance is yet. This just proves how vast and mysterious the universe is to us still! The exciting things waiting to be discovered are theoretically limitless!
The image of this dust was captured by the HiRISE camera on the Mars Observational Orbiter. The orbiter was launched in 2006 and since then has only captured 1% of Mars' surface at its high resolution quality.
In the coming winter seasons the gas will once again freeze and form larger ice caps.
Neat!
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