Fresh images of Mars show signs of relatively recent ice age

As you travel from the middle of Mars toward its northern regions, the landscape changes dramatically. In an area called Coloe Fossae, long shallow grooves stretch across deep valleys, scattered craters, and rocky terrain: evidence that this part of Mars was once shaped by ice.According to ‘Science Daily’, these features are signs of a past martian ice age, caused not by modern climate change, but by slow shifts in the planet’s orbit and tilt.New images from European Space Agency’s (ESA) Mars Express spacecraft reveal these grooves in stunning detail.The Coloe Fossae formed when blocks of the surface sank, while surrounding craters — some sharp, some eroded, some partly buried — show the passage of time. Swirling, grooved textures on valley and crater floors indicate where ice once flowed, much like glaciers on Earth.Scientists call these features lineated valley fill or concentric crater fill. They formed when slow-moving mixtures of ice and rock flowed across the surface and were eventually buried. The fact that these patterns appear as far from the poles as 39° north shows that glaciers once spread into mid-latitudes during a martian ice age. Evidence suggests ice may have covered this region as recently as half a million years ago, offering a rare glimpse into Mars’s icy past.