The European Space Agency has released new images of Mars showing the giant Schiaparelli crater, captured by the Mars Express orbiter during a relatively low-altitude flyby over the Red Planet.
The detailed observations showcase the planet's Southern Highlands, a rugged region whose terrain was sculpted billions of years ago by streams of liquid water.
To capture the new views, the spacecraft used its High Resolution Stereo Camera. The specialized imaging system observes the Martian surface from five different angles simultaneously while scanning across four spectral bands, allowing scientists to create color three-dimensional models of the planet's topography.
Structure of Schiaparelli crater
Schiaparelli crater is recognized as one of the largest impact structures on Mars, measuring more than 460 kilometers in diameter. Positioned within the densely cratered Southern Highlands, the region dates back to a period roughly 3.7 billion years ago when the Martian climate was considerably warmer and wetter than it is today.
Despite its enormous diameter, Schiaparelli is categorized today as a relatively shallow feature. When the asteroid impact originally carved out the basin, the depression was significantly deeper than its current profile. Over billions of years, wind, ancient water flows, volcanic activity, and debris thrown up by nearby asteroid collisions gradually filled the crater with layers of sedimentary rock.
Mars Express orbital observations
The Mars Express spacecraft has been operating in orbit around Mars since 2003. Operating along an elongated orbit, the probe gathers high-resolution data in long strips of surface terrain during each close approach, which mission scientists progressively compile into increasingly detailed three-dimensional maps of the planet.
Origins of the Martian canal myth
The impact feature bears the name of Italian astronomer Giovanni Schiaparelli, who compiled detailed surface maps of Mars during its close approach to Earth in 1877. During his observations, Schiaparelli identified prominent dark lines across the surface and labeled them with the Italian word canali, meaning channels or waterways.
When translated into English, the term was mistakenly rendered as artificial canals. The mistranslation sparked a popular hypothesis that an intelligent Martian civilization had constructed an irrigation network across the planet.
While space missions have found no evidence of any such civilization, subsequent scientific research confirmed that liquid water did once flow in significant quantities across the Martian surface, leaving behind extensive geological traces.
