Oblique perspective view from east to west across the Ares Vallis outflow channel
Oblique perspective view from east to west across the Ares Vallis outflow channel
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 ESA’s Mars Express spacecraft, which are oriented at an angle with respect to the planet’s surface. This image shows an oblique perspective view from east to west across the Ares Vallis outflow channel. Water once flowed with considerable force through Ares Vallis towards the lowlands of Chryse Planitia. The patterns on the valley floor provide evidence of the flow. A particularly striking feature in the centre of the image is a field of small craters in an unusual grouping. This cluster of craters could be the result of the impact of the debris resulting from an asteroid as it broke up in the atmosphere. An alternative explanation is that they are secondary craters, formed when pieces of rock ejected by an asteroid impact fell back to the surface.
Copyright note:
As a joint undertaking by DLR, ESA and FU Berlin, the Mars Express HRSC images are published under a Creative Commons licence since December 2014: ESA/DLR/FU Berlin, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO. This licence will also apply to all HRSC images released to date.
