Mars' Penticton Crater has seasonal ice in new NASA photo

Photo: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona

Penticton on Mars seen with streaks of ice ? a familiar sight to earthly Pentictonites this week.

Penticton, B.C. is not the only Penticton that resembles an icy wasteland when temperatures plummet. 

A new NASA image of the eight-kilometre wide Penticton Crater on Mars shows it too undergoes seasonal freezes. 

The image was acquired by HiRISE, a NASA camera on board the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, in November, but it was fittingly released as the program's picture of the day on Jan. 14, which happened to be an extremely frigid week in the earthly Penticton. 

According to the University of Arizona, which operates HiRISE for NASA, the image shows streamers of seasonal carbon dioxide ice, or dry ice. 

"The turquoise-coloured frost (enhanced colour) is protected from the sun in shadowed dips in the ground while the sunlit surface nearby is already frost-free," the description reads. 

The crater got its name because it too is affected by landslides. Penticton is one of just a handful of Canadian cities with Martian craters named after them, including Okotoks, Quick, Souris, Tignish, Tugaske, Kamloops and Windfall.

Lucky for Penticton on Mars, it is now enjoying springtime, after a winter which sees averages temperatures of about -60C. Down here on Earth, we may have to deal with snow and ice for a while longer, but hopefully nothing that cold.