Mars is unlikely to sport beachfront property anytime soon, but the planet has enough water ice at its south pole to blanket the entire planet in more than 30 feet of water if everything thawed out. With a radar technique, astronomers have penetrated for the first time about 2.5 miles (nearly four kilometers) beneath the south pole’s frozen surface. The data showed that nearly pure water ice lies beneath. Discovered in the early 1970s, layered deposits of ice and dust cap the North and South Poles of Mars. Until now, the deposits have been difficult to study closely with existing telescopes and satellites. The current advance comes from a probe of the deposits using an instrument aboard the Mars Express orbiter.

Mars is home to the highest clouds ever discovered above the surface of a planet, astronomers said today. The European Space Agency's orbiting Mars Express spacecraft found clouds that are between 50 and 62 miles (80 to 100 kilometers) above the red planet. The highest clouds on Earth top out at about 52 miles (84 kilometers). The surprising clouds are most likely made of carbon dioxide, researchers said. There were detected with a camera that senses ultraviolet and infrared light, so there is no conventional picture of them. The clouds were spotted by observing distant stars just before they disappeared behind Mars. The stars would dim as they went behind clouds.

Dramatic 3D images of ancient lava tubes on the Martian volcano, Pavonis Mons, have been captured by the Mars Express spacecraft. Lava tubes are produced when lava on the top of a lava flow cools and forms a crust, while the subsurface lava remains molten. This molten lava continues to flow until the lava source is exhausted. In the case of Pavonis Mons, researchers believe the roofs of these tubes eventually collapsed, leaving long channels in the planet's surface.

By mapping minerals on the surface of Mars using the European Space Agency's Mars Express spacecraft, scientists have discovered the three ages of Martian geological history – as reported in today's issue of Science - and found valuable clues as to where life might have developed. The new work shows that large bodies of standing water might only have been present on Mars in the remote past, before four thousand million years ago, if they were present at all. Within half a billion years, these conditions had faded away.

These images, taken by the High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) on board ESA's Mars Express spacecraft, show the region of Libya Montes, south of the Isidis Planitia impact basin on Mars. The HRSC obtained these images during orbit 922 with a ground resolution of approximately 14.3 metres per pixel at equatorial latitudes near longitude 81 East.

The British scientist behind the failed Beagle 2 probe said Tuesday he believes he has located the craft’s wreckage on the surface of Mars. Nothing has been heard from Beagle 2 — named for the ship that took naturalist Charles Darwin on his 19th-century voyage of discovery — since it separated from its mother ship Dec. 19, 2003. It had been due to land on Mars six days later. Colin Pillinger, the lead scientist on the mission, said the latest images from NASA’s Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft suggested Beagle plunged into a crater near its planned landing site.

The scientist behind the British Beagle 2 mission to the Red Planet says the craft may have been found in pictures of the Martian surface. Colin Pillinger says the images suggest the mission very nearly worked, but Beagle somehow failed to contact Earth. He thinks the craft may have hit the ground too hard - as the atmosphere was thinner than usual because of dust storms in that region of Mars. This may have damaged onboard instruments, preventing the call home.

For the first time in the history of planetary exploration, the MARSIS radar on board ESA's Mars Express has provided direct information about the deep subsurface of Mars. First data include buried impact craters, probing of layered deposits at the north pole and hints of the presence of deep underground water-ice.

Substantial quantities of liquid water must have been stably present in the early history of Mars. The findings of OMEGA, on board ESA's Mars Express, have implications on the climatic history of the planet and the question of its 'habitability' at some point in its history. These conclusions were drawn thanks to data on Martian surface minerals obtained by OMEGA (Observatoire pour la Mineralogy, l'Eau, les Glaces et l'Activité), the visible and infrared mapping spectrometer on board ESA's Mars Express.

ESA’s Mars Express mission is continuing its investigations of Mars, painting a new picture of the 'red planet'. This includes the first ever probing below the surface of Mars, new geological clues with implications for the climate, newly-discovered surface and atmospheric features and, above all, traces of the presence of water on this world. These and other exciting findings from just one year of observations and data analysis - in the context of ESA’s overall scientific achievements - will be the focus of a press conference to be held at ESA Headquarters in Paris at 16:00 on 30 November 2005.

ESA’s Mars Express mission has been extended by one Martian year, or about 23 months, from the beginning of December 2005. The decision, taken on 19 September by ESA’s Science Programme Committee, allows the spacecraft orbiting the Red Planet to continue building on the legacy of its own scientific success. Co-ordinated from the beginning with the Mars science and exploration activities of other agencies, Mars Express has revealed an increasingly complex picture of Mars. Since the start of science operations in early 2004, new aspects of Mars are emerging day by day, thanks to Mars Express data. These include its present-day climate system, and its geological ‘activity’ and diversity. Mars Express has also started mapping water in its various states.

Europe's Mars Express probe may have found evidence for a band of ice that once spanned the Martian equator. A frozen sea and patterns of glacial activity on the planet may be a relic of this ancient belt of ice, says a top scientist. The ice may have formed just before five million years ago due to a change in the tilt of Mars.

MARSIS, the sounding radar on board ESA’s Mars Express spacecraft, is collecting the first data about the surface and the ionosphere of Mars. The radar started its science operations on 4 July 2005, after the first phase of its commissioning was concluded on the same day. Due to the late deployment of MARSIS, it was decided to split the commissioning, originally planned to last four weeks, into two phases, one of which has just ended and the second one to be started by December this year.

These images, taken by the High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) on board ESA’s Mars Express spacecraft, show a patch of water ice sitting on the floor of an unnamed crater near the Martian north pole. The crater is 35 kilometres wide and has a maximum depth of approximately 2 kilometres beneath the crater rim. The circular patch of bright material located at the centre of the crater is residual water ice. This white patch is present all year round, as the temperature and pressure are not high enough to allow sublimation of water ice.

What lies on the floor of this Martian crater? A frozen patch of water ice. The robotic Mars Express spacecraft took the above image in early February. The ice pocket was found in a 35-kilometer wide crater that resides 70 degrees north of the Martian equator. There, sunlight is blocked by the 300-meter tall crater wall from vaporizing the water-ice on the crater floor into the thin Martian atmosphere. The ice pocket may be as deep as 200 meters thick. Frost can be seen around the inner edge on the upper right part of the crater, while part of the lower left crater wall is bathed in sunlight.