Perspective view of Ophir Chasma, a northern parallel valley of Valles Marineris.
Credit: ESA/DLR/FU Berlin (G.Neukum).
Perspective colour view of Coprates Chasma and the 'Grabenkette' Coprates Catena in an eastern section of Valles Marineris.
Credit: ESA/DLR/FU Berlin (G. Neukum).
Perspective view of the crater and dunes of Argyre Planitia.
This perspective view shows the impressive volcanic crater, or caldera, of Olympus Mons. Olympus Mons is 22 kilometres high and the largest volcano in the Solar System.
Looking from an imaginary point above the surrounding highlands in the middle of the Valles Marineris looking from south to north. You can see the three parallel valleys Melas Chasma, Candor Chasma and Ophir Chasma, each about 200 kilometres wide. The steep cliffs in the background and centre are about five metres high and show traces of intense erosion. The remains of the massive landslides can be seen at the foot of the mountainface. How this enormous structure on the surface of Mars was formed is still unclear. The topography shown is twice as high as in reality. Perspective colour view.
Perspective colour view of Aureum Chaos, northerly direction.
Crater in the north of Valles Marineris, perspective colour view.
Perspective colour view of the start of the Mars valleys Dao Vallis and Niger Vallis.
Water ice at the bottom of a crater near the Martian north pole. In the centre of the crater, which is about 35 kilometres across, white water ice stands out clearly. The impact crater is located in the northern lowland area Vastitas Borealis. Water ice can remain in the centre of the crater throughout the year, as the temperature is low enough and atmospheric pressure is sufficient to prevent sublimation (direct transition from a solid to a gaseous state). At the time of image acquisition (later summer on Mars), carbon dioxide ice had already disappeared from the entire northern polar cap, leaving only water ice. The thickness of the ice is probably only in the decimetre range. This has been confirmed by some earlier measurements.
Perspective colour view - northeasterly direction.
Perspective colour view of Coprates Catena, on the southern edge of the Valles Marineris.
Black and white image of Phobos, a moon of Mars.
Claritas Fossae, perspective colour view.
A perspective view obtained by the HRSC on board ESA's Mars Express, showing an unusual 'rock glacier' in the eastern Hellas region. Ice-rich material seems to have flowed from a small, nine kilometre wide crater into a larger 16 kilometre wide crater below. The ice may have precipitated from the atmosphere a few million years ago. This unusual structure with traces of a glacier is located in Promethei Terra at the eastern rim of the Hellas Basin, at about latitude 38º South and longitude 104º East. This view is looking south-east.
Perspective colour view of a 55 kilometre long and 37 kilometre wide massif in the middle of the Nicholson crater - detailed view. North is at the top.
Water ice in the northern polar region of Mars - perspective colour view.
Perspective view of Eos Chasma - 'dawn over the gorge'.
Perspective colour view of the southern arms of the Kasei Valles nearby Sacra Mensa with the 1-2 kilometre deep graben system: Sacra Fossae.
HRSC-colour view of the Cydonia region with its so-called 'Face on Mars' below right in image (Orbit 3253, cross-section).
Olympus Mons is, at 24 kilometres, the highest volcano in the Solar System. At its base, the volcano is about 600 kilometres across. This image is a birds-eye view taken by the HRSC in false colour.
Valles Marineris is an approximately 3000-kilometre-long canyon system on Mars that surrounds the high plains of Tharsis. Candor Chasma, situated in northern Valles Marineris, is part of a radial graben system. A graben is a feature bound by parallel normal faults, where the graben floor moves downward relative to the adjoining material. The grabens in the area were created radially, as the Tharsis bulge formed due to volcanic uplift.
Show Title
The European Mars Express, which was launched on 2 June 2003, is providing important new data on the geology, mineralogy and atmosphere of Mars. Mars Express is giving us information about the history of the Red Planet’s climate and explaining the role and whereabouts of water on the planet.
A wealth of information about Mars, its surface, subsurface and atmosphere has led to a completely new view of the Red Planet.
The High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) on ESA's Mars Express mission was developed by the German Aerospace Center (DLR) and built in cooperation with industrial partners (EADS Astrium, Lewicki Microelectronic GmbH and Jena-Optronik GmbH).