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NASA Finds 'Dry Ice' Snowfalls on Mars

This image from two instruments aboard NASA’s Mars Global Surveyor, depicts an orbital view of the north polar region of Mars. New findings from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter have revealed subsurface geology in this region.

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VOA News

September 12, 2012

Scientists at the U.S. space agency NASA say they have discovered evidence of carbon dioxide snowfalls on Mars.

The space agency data provided by its Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter provides evidence that the Red Planet has snow clouds made of frozen carbon dioxide, better known as "dry ice."

NASA says data from observations in Mars' south polar region during its 2006-2007 winter points to what would be the only known example of carbon dioxide snow falling in the solar system.

NASA study author Paul Hayne said in a statement Tuesday that the finding of snowfall could explain why Mars' south polar residual ice cap persists year-round.

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Boston Bomber Spent 6 Months in Russia’s Most Violent Republic

The news of the Boston Marathon bombings circled the globe, and resonated here in Dagestan, a majority Muslim republic in Russia, on the shores of the Caspian Sea. Last year, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, the older of two brothers suspected of the bombings and a long-time Boston resident, returned to Dagestan, where he had lived for a year during his youth. Dagestan was the land of his maternal ancestors. But in the last two years, this republic of 3 million people has gained notoriety as the region with the highest level of political and religious violence in all of Russia. VOA's James Brooke reports from Makhachkala, Russia.