A 42 km-wide impact crater and numerous smaller craters straddle the northwestern rim of the 460 km-diameter Schiaparelli basin in this image taken by ESA’s Mars Express on 15 July 2010. The large basin is named for Italian astronomer Giovanni Schiaparelli (1835–1910). The entry, descent and landing demonstrator module of the joint ESA–Roscosmos ExoMars 2016 mission also honours the astronomer with the name Schiaparelli.
Giovanni Schiaparelli is famous for observing straight-line features on Mars that he called ‘canali’. This term was mistakenly translated into English as ‘canal’ instead of ‘channel’, conjuring up images of vast irrigation networks constructed by intelligent beings.
We now know that Schiaparelli’s canali were illusions created by the comparatively poor telescopes of the time and that there are no water-filled channels on Mars today – but there is plenty of evidence that water was once present in Mars’ past. The Schiaparelli basin may be one such location: layers in its walls and deposits on its floor suggest it once hosted a lake. The scene shown here has also been modified by lava flows and wind erosion.
Meanwhile, the ‘other’ Schiaparelli, that of the ExoMars 2016 mission, is getting ready – along with the Trace Gas Orbiter – to leave Europe for its launch site in Kazakhstan. They are due for launch on a Russian Proton rocket in March 2016, arriving at the Red Planet in October. [More at link]