Bruce Murray Space Image Library

Carbon dioxide snow and water ice snow, compared

Carbon dioxide snow and water ice snow, compared
Carbon dioxide snow and water ice snow, compared What does a Martian snowflake look like? As seen by Earth-based experimenters, carbon dioxide crystals have a "cuboctahedral" shape – cubes with the corners cut off. These particles are much smaller (about 100x smaller) than terrestrial water snow, and lack their intricate symmetry and platy structure.