The images from the High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC), carried on board ESA’s Mars Express spacecraft and operated by the German Aerospace Center, were acquired on 21 June 2011 and show the transition zone between the western edge of Acidalia Planitia and the Martian highlands.
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| This colour view was created using the nadir channel, which is directed vertically down onto the Martian surface, and the HRSC camera system colour channels on ESA's Mars Express spacecraft; north is to the right in the image. The image section shown here covers an area of around 11,000 square kilometres. Numerous river valleys can be made out in this section of the transition zone between the Tempe Terra region in the Martian highlands and the northern lowlands of Acidalia Planitia. The dendritic pattern of these river valleys suggests that these structures formed a long time ago by surface water, which presumably precipitated onto Mars in the form of rain or snow. Many of the large craters are filled with sediment that the water transported into these impact structures, which were once much deeper. Credit: ESA/DLR/FU Berlin (G. Neukum) |
Acidalia Planitia is a plain in the northern lowlands, lying between the Tharsis volcanic province and Arabia Terra, to the north of the Valles Marineris. The famous Cydonia region (the 'face on Mars') is also located in the Acidalia plain. The imaged region covers an area roughly 150 by 70 kilometres, making it a little larger than the island of Crete. Acidalia is the name of a spring in Boeotia (modern Attica) in central Greece where, according to legend, Venus, the goddess of love, frequently bathed with the Graces. For this reason she is sometimes referred to as 'Acidalia' (Venus Acidalia).
These HRSC images were acquired during Mars Express' orbit 9534. The image resolution is about 15 metres per pixel. The images show a section at 37 degrees north and 306 degrees east.
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| 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. Credit: ESA/DLR/FU Berlin (G. Neukum) |
Source:
- Mars Express – Former lakes and rivers in Acidalia Planitia, Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt (DLR),3 May 2012
