Science & Exploration
Close-up of Valles Marineris from global Mars colour mosaic (annotated)
To mark 20 years of ESA’s Mars Express, the High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) team has produced a new global colour mosaic of Mars. This image is a close-up of the mosaic, with stretched contrast, and shows the canyon system Valles Marineris with annotated surface details: sulphate deposits, haze and fog, and cloud cover. This tectonic feature stretches more than 4000 km east-west and up to 700 km north-south, and is the biggest and most dramatic canyon system in the Solar System.
Faint bright-to-light blue areas show clouds in the atmosphere. The depths of Valles Marineris are also covered by the fog and haze that likes to form in martian surface depressions at this time of year.
