A perspective view of the angel on Mars
A perspective view of the angel on Mars
The digital terrain models created using image data acquired by the stereo channels of the HRSC instrument on ESA’s Mars Express spacecraft can be used to generate perspective views of the landscape on Mars. This view shows dark sand deposits near the south pole of Mars. These outlines are reminiscent of an angel with outstretched wings, with a large heart under its (from the camera’s perspective) right wing. On the left border of the image, an impact crater approximately 15 kilometres wide can be seen, in which the dark sands form the ‘head of the angel’. With a little imagination, the almost one-thousand-metre-high rim of the crater can be interpreted as a ‘halo’. The dark material consists of almost completely black sands of olivine and pyroxene minerals and was probably blown into the crater.
