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Mars hit by ‘global warming’ – ‘Mars’ current ice age is in retreat’

Radar data from an instrument on board the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has given scientists an unprecedented glimpse into Mars’ recent climatic history, etched into the layers of its northern polar ice cap.

The study of those ice layers, published today in Science, suggests the last ice age on Mars began retreating about 370,000 years ago.

Ice ages have long been predicted for Mars, based on a combination of the planet’s changing tilt and its variable distance from the Sun — similar to the cycles that impact the Earth’s climate over tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of years.

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