Iceworld Recon: Orbital View Of Snow Drifts In Patagonia

Editor’s note: we currently have a fleet of spacecraft studying Mars – a cold planet with a large variety of geological features governed by frozen water and carbon dioxide. Earth offers an excellent analog – with the ability to get ground truth – for a wide range of icy features. We’re also exploring the icy moons of Jupiter and Saturn – while these moons have great differences from Earth they also have similarities. Again, being able to do orbital recons of our icy ocean planet will help us study other worlds. Earth can serve as an analog for the worlds we will soon explore in detail.

As the International Space Station orbited 268 miles above the coast of Chile, snow drifts through glaciated mountain ranges in Southern Patagonia.

iss070e049061 (Dec. 27, 2023) — larger image

Astrobiology,