February 19, 2002
The Moon has changed phase thousands of times since the beginning of the cosmos, but only once did it shine on the night you arrived.
Water-Ice Imaged in Martian Polar Cap
Birthday · February 19, 2002
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APOD published February 19, 2002. Full image credits are on the original APOD entry below. A publication-date match, not a photo taken on your date. Independent of NASA.
Does water exist today on Mars? Yes, although the only place on Mars known to have water is the North Polar Cap, and that water is frozen. Views of this potentially life-enabling water-ice are usually obscured -- in the winter by darkness and in the summer by clouds. Last April, however, the orbiting Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft was able to get a good glimpse of the water-bearing cap just before Martian spring. Low, dark layers in the above image are thought to contain a large amount of sand, while high, light layers likely contain higher amounts of water-ice. The image spans an area about 5 kilometers across.