Until now, it's been thought that clouds on Mars don't move water in a way that allows snow to form but new mathematical models published in Nature Geoscience today suggest it is indeed possible for convection snowstorms to occur in the Martian atmosphere — at night.
Why it matters: Researching snow on Mars has been important to understanding water on the planet and the Martian climate. "There [are] a couple of holy grails in Mars science," Hanna Sizemore, an expert on ground ice on Mars at the Planetary Science Institute who wasn't involved in the research, told Axios. "One of them is life, biology, and one of them, which is linked to the first, is understanding the water cycle." The authors say their study shows snow precipitation may have "played a key role in forming tropical and mid-latitude glaciers on Mars."
