The European Space Agency (ESA) is Europe’s gateway to space. Its mission is to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space continues to deliver benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world.
Find out more about space activities in our 23 Member States, and understand how ESA works together with their national agencies, institutions and organisations.
Exploring our Solar System and unlocking the secrets of the Universe
Go to topicProtecting life and infrastructure on Earth and in orbit
Go to topicUsing space to benefit citizens and meet future challenges on Earth
Go to topicMaking space accessible and developing the technologies for the future
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This image from ESA’s Mars Express shows craters, valleys and chaotic terrain in Mars’ Pyrrhae Regio.
Chaotic terrain forms as a shifting subsurface layer of melting ice and sediment causes the surface above to collapse (a collapse that can happen quickly and catastrophically as water drains away rapidly through the soil). In the chaotic terrain seen here (to the right of the frame), ice has melted, the resulting water drained away, and a number of disparate broken ‘blocks’ have been left standing in now-empty cavities (which once hosted ice). Remarkably, these cavities lie some four kilometres below the flatter ground near the craters to the left – a colossal difference in height. For reference, the highest mountain peaks of the Pyrenees and the Alps top out at just over 3.4 km and 4.8 km, respectively.
This image comprises data gathered by ESA’s Mars Express using its High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) on 3 August 2020 (orbit 20972). The ground resolution is approximately 16 m/pixel and the images are centred at about 322°E/16°S. This image was created using data from the nadir and colour channels of the HRSC. The nadir channel is aligned perpendicular to the surface of Mars, as if looking straight down at the surface. North is to the right.