Tag Archives: MEX

Mars Express: Dark meets light in Terra Cimmeria

ESA’s Mars Express has captured the cosmic contrast of Terra Cimmeria, a region in the southern highlands of Mars marked by impact craters, water-carved valleys, and sand and dust in numerous chocolate and caramel hues. Mars is often referred to … Continue reading

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Mars Express: Dust storms swirl at martian north pole

ESA’s Mars Express has been keeping an eye on local and regional dust storms brewing at the north pole of the Red Planet over the last month, watching as they disperse towards the equator. Local and regional storms lasting for … Continue reading

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HRSC: A chaos found only on Mars

The cracked, uneven, jumbled landscape seen in this image from ESA’s Mars Express forms an intriguing type of terrain that cannot be found on Earth: chaotic terrain. The feature visible here, Aurorae Chaos, is located in the ancient and equatorial … Continue reading

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Europe to Mars — and back!

Europe has been in orbit around Mars for more than 15 years and is almost a year away from launching its first rover mission, but ambitions are already running high to go one step further: returning a sample from the … Continue reading

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HRSC: From canals to craters

Mars was once believed to be criss-crossed by a system of irrigation canals – dark troughs that sliced across the planet’s surface, excavated by an intelligent society of thirsty martians. The astronomer who promoted this idea lends his name to … Continue reading

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Mars Express saw same methane spike detected by Curiosity

A reanalysis of data collected by ESA’s Mars Express during the first 20 months of NASA’s Curiosity mission found one case of correlated methane detection, the first time an in-situ measurement has been independently confirmed from orbit. Reports of methane … Continue reading

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Mars Express: Dark dust devil tracks

The winds of Mars are responsible for myriad features across the planet’s surface – including the dark dunes and wispy, filament-like streaks seen in this image from ESA’s Mars Express. The intriguing features shown here are ‘dust devil’ tracks: as … Continue reading

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Mars Express: Geological evidence of a global groundwater system

[Ed. note: This research was reported earlier here.] Mars Express has revealed the first geological evidence of a system of ancient interconnected lakes that once lay deep beneath the Red Planet’s surface, five of which may contain minerals crucial to … Continue reading

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Mars Express: Signs of ancient flowing water

These images from ESA’s Mars Express satellite show a branching, desiccated system of trenches and valleys, signs of ancient water flow that hint at a warmer, wetter past for the Red Planet. We see Mars as a cold, dry world, … Continue reading

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Mars Express: 15 years imaging the Red Planet

On 25 December 2003, ESA’s Mars Express entered orbit around the Red Planet. The spacecraft began returning the first images from orbit using its High Resolution Stereo Camera just a couple of weeks later, and over the course of its … Continue reading

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