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	2009 Sky Almanac McDonald Observatory logo cap

Like freshly dug wells, young impact craters on Mars are exposing water beneath the planet's surface. They tell scientists that water ice is abundant just a few feet below the surface, where it should be easily accessible to future robotic or human explorers.

[NASA/JPL/MSSS (3)]

Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) photographed layers of white coating the floors and rims of several impact craters that were no more than a few weeks old (images above). The spacecraft's spectrometer, which measures the chemical composition of surface material, confirmed that the coating on the crater at right was water ice.

MRO and other missions have discovered water ice in the planet's polar ice caps and in layers beneath the surface at high latitudes, while the Phoenix lander dug into ice just a few inches below the surface. The new craters are closer to the equator, indicating that ice is common across the entire planet, and easily accessible for future study or use as a resource for human expeditions.