Oblique perspective view of Tempe Terra, from northwest to southeast
Oblique perspective view of Tempe Terra, from northwest to southeast
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. This image shows the transition zone between the old highlands of Mars in the background, covered with numerous impact craters, and the northern lowlands in the foreground. A number of promontories that have not yet been worn away by erosion extend into the lowlands. Dendritic valleys indicate that flowing water has also contributed to the shaping of the landscape. The ejecta from an impact crater 12 kilometres across are intersected by a tectonic rift almost a kilometre wide, which is the result of tensile stress in the Martian crust. The interior of the crater has been filled in with a material the surface structure of which indicates that it had plastic properties.
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.