A wealth of information about Mars, its surface, subsurface and atmosphere has led to a completely new view of the Red Planet.
This animation shows a flight over the region of the Chasmata Melas, Candor and Ophir in the central part of Valles Marineris. 'Chasma' (= Greek for "fissure/canyon", plural 'chasmata') refers to deep valleys and canyons on Mars and Venus bound by steep cliff faces.
The images shown in this gallery were generated at the Institute for Geological Sciences at the Freie Universität Berlin and published there as 'Highlights of the Month' in 2011. They present special Mars products obtained using the HRSC camera on board Mars Express.
New images from the HRSC camera on board the Mars Express spacecraft show numerous dried up river valleys and various former crater lakes in the Acidalia Planitia region. They are further evidence of the existence of water on the surface of Mars for an extended period of time. Such areas are of particular interest to the search for microbial life, which may have developed here under these circumstances.
In the Tharsis volcanic region, almost the size of Europe, the Martian highlands have arched up into a shield several thousand metres in height as a consequence of volcanic processes. Quite a few unusual topographic features can be observed there.
Ius Chasma is one of the main graben in Valles Marineris, one of the largest known canyon systems in the Solar System. Over a length of 940 kilometres, Ius Chasma forms the northern boundary between the western half of this enormous valley system and the Martian highlands.