The Cap Was Cleaner Than the Story
A clean cap, drawn cleaner than a textbook dust story. The less-than-3-percent figure is theirs.
Sci.News, September 30: a new look at orbital and lander data says the exposed water ice at Mars’s north pole contains less than 3 percent dust, far below earlier estimates.
Dust fraction is the kind of number that changes what you think the cap is. A dirty ice sheet is a mixture you have to model before you trust the thickness. A cleaner sheet is closer to being water you could name as water. I have not opened the data reduction. “Less than 3 percent” and “far below earlier estimates” are the sentences I am willing to repeat.
Cleaner is not the same as useful. It is a correction to a story that had more dirt in it than the ice does.
Source: Sci.News, 30 Sep 2026, “Water Ice at Mars’ North Pole is Considerably Cleaner than Previously Believed.”
Backfill. Written October 10. The date was a hole.