This colour plan view was created using data from the nadir channel, which is directed vertically down onto the Martian surface, and the colour channels of the High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) on board ESA's Mars Express spacecraft. The data was acquired at approximately 17 degrees south and 296 degrees east during orbit 11,467 on 4 January 2013. The image shows two 50-kilometre craters located on Thaumasia Planum, just south of Valles Marineris. North is to the right of the image; the ground resolution is approximately 25 metres per pixel. The northern crater is named Arima, while the southern crater is unnamed. Both craters exhibit central depressions thought to have been caused by underground steam explosions during the impact events that formed them.
Credit: ESA/DLR/FU Berlin (G. Neukum).
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This view shows part of the southern portion of Gordii Dorsum. Particularly striking are the numerous, narrow, parallel crests and furrows. These are yardangs, which were carved out of the rock by dust and sand particles travelling in the direction of the prevailing wind. It is clearly apparent that Gordii Dorsum is constructed from numerous superimposed layers that have been gradually affected by wind erosion, primarily from the west.
High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) nadir and colour channel data acquired during orbit 11,497 on 13 January 2013 by ESA’s Mars Express spacecraft has been combined to form a natural-colour view of the Tinto Vallis region. The region imaged, which lies southwest of Amenthes Rupes and Palos Crater, is centred at around three degrees south and 109 degrees east, and has a ground resolution of about 22 metres per pixel. The mouth of Tinto Vallis, seen clearly in the lower centre of this image, is believed to have formed 3.7 billion years ago after volcanic activity warmed and melted subsurface ice, which then escaped to the surface to form 'sapping valleys'.
Ice flows have deposited rubble and boulders in the upper section of Reull Vallis outflow channel, some seven kilometres wide and 300 metres deep at this point, near to the Promethei Terra region that is. After the ice mass melted, a pattern was left in the sediments in which the movement of the glacier and its rocky cargo is clearly visible. A tributary valley flows into the main valley in the centre of the image.
This colour plan view was created using the nadir channel, which is directed vertically down onto the Martian surface, and the colour channels of the High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) on board ESA's Mars Express spacecraft; the resolution is 20 metres per pixel. Charitum Montes runs through the Martian highlands, parallel to the southern edge of the Argyre impact basin. Numerous craters of different sizes are immediately apparent. This is an unmistakeable sign that the major structures of the landscape are very old, probably more than three billion years.
Credit: ESA/DLR/FU Berlin (G. Neukum) .
Realistic perspective views of the surface of Mars can be generated from data acquired by the stereo and colour channels of the High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) on board ESA's Mars Express spacecraft, which are oriented at an oblique angle with respect to the planet’s surface. The image shows a part of Nereidum Montes, which is located just inside the main ring of Argyre Basin and forms part of the mountainous northern rim. Similar to the Alps, it stretches in an arc over 1100 kilometres, parallel to the edge of the basin, with individual mountains of three to four thousand metres in height.
Mars is clearly much smaller than Earth, but it can still come up with impressive superlatives, particularly spectacular is the Valles Marineris canyon system. This graben, up to 11 kilometres deep and 200 kilometres wide, stretches almost 4000 kilometres across the Martian highlands in an east-west direction along the equator. The Grand Canyon in the United States (almost two kilometres deep) would easily fit into one of the smaller valleys that run parallel to Valles Marineris.
Credit: ESA / DLR / FU Berlin (G. Neukum).
This colour plan view was created using the nadir channel, which is directed vertically down onto the Martian surface, and the colour channels of the High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) on board ESA’s Mars Express spacecraft; north is to the right in the image. The image resolution is 22 metres per pixel. Hooke Crater is located in the Argyre Planitia region – an extensive circular plain on the southern hemisphere of Mars.
Anaglyph images can be created from the nadir channel of the High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) camera system, which looks vertically down at Mars, and one of the four stereo channels, which are directed obliquely towards the surface. Using red/blue (cyan) or red/green glasses gives a three-dimensional impression of the landscape; north is to the right in the image. Hadley Crater offers a view almost 2600 metres into the Martian crust, made possible by three nested craters. Closer inspection reveals a number of additional, small, younger craters at the lowest point. Hadley Crater lies to the west of the Al-Qahira Vallis (Arabic for 'Mars'), in the transition zone between the ancient, southern highlands and the younger lowlands.
This colour plan view was created by combining data from the nadir channel of the High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) on board ESA’s Mars Express spacecraft, which is directed vertically down onto the planet’s surface, with data from the colour channels; north is to the right. The image covers an area of 22,500 square kilometers, roughly the size of New Hampshire. In this area, water has left many signs of its presence on the landscape, such as layers of sediment (lower left) and, on the lowland areas, sporadic light, almost white, deposits of minerals that formed in water.
Using the High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC), digital terrain models can be derived that illustrate the topography of the region using false colours. The altitudes can be read from the coloured scale at the top right of the full image. In the absence of 'sea level', the elevation data is referenced to an areoid – a modelled equipotential surface on which everything experiences the same gravitational attraction towards the centre of the planet.The wrinkle ridges and the 16-kilometre crater with butterfly-shaped ejecta are all clearly discernible.
Realistic perspective views of the surface of Mars can be generated from data acquired by the stereo and colour channels of the High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) on board ESA's Mars Express spacecraft, which are oriented at an oblique angle with respect to the planet's surface. This image shows a view of Danielson Crater, in the Arabia Terra region, with its characteristics yardangs. Yardangs are rocky protrusions with streamlined shapes, formed by the removal of the softer surrounding material through wind-driven abrasion. Since they are for the most part arranged parallel to one another, the prevailing wind direction during the erosion process can be determined.
Realistic perspective views of the Martian surface can be generated from data acquired by the stereo and colour channels of the High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) on board ESA's Mars Express spacecraft, which are oriented at an angle with respect to the planet's surface.The image shows a view from the southeast over the plain of Acidalia Planitia to the northwest towards the Martian highland of Tempe Terra. In the foreground and in the centre at the upper edge of the image, four craters with obvious, sharp rims can be seen; they were presumably formed when water activity in this region had ceased, as no sediment has been deposited in their interiors. A larger, older crater to the upper left of the centre of the image is different; its interior has been almost completely filled with sediment, transported there by rivers during the early period of Mars' history.
Realistic perspective views of the Martian surface can be generated from data acquired by the stereo and colour channels of the High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) on board ESA’s Mars Express spacecraft, which are oriented at an angle with respect to the planet's surface. In this image, the view runs from the northeast, over the fractures of Tractus Catena, to the northern section of the Tharsis Bulge. Multiple chains of crater-like depressions up to 1500 metres deep that have formed along the major fault lines are clearly visible. The origin of these pit crater chains, which are mostly observed along stress fractures, is still unclear. Volcanic processes may be one cause, but the role of water in underground cavities might also be a factor.
Digital terrain models that illustrate the topography of the region using false colours can be derived using the HRSC stereo camera. The altitude can be read from the colour scale at the bottom right; north is to the right. In the absence of 'sea level', the elevation data is referenced to an areoid - a modelled equipotential surface on which everything experiences the same gravitational attraction towards the centre of the planet. While the valley floor of Ius Chasma is 4000 metres below the areoid, the level of the surrounding Martian highlands is more than 4000 metres above the reference surface – over a horizontal distance of less than 20 kilometres, there is a drop of more than eight kilometres.
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.
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.
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