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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To mark 20 years of ESA’s Mars Express, the High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) team has produced a new global colour mosaic of Mars by combining 90 high-altitude HRSC images.
This image shows an example of the kind of high-altitude HRSC image used to create the global mosaic, taken during HRSC orbit 21 688. The grey terrain comprises data from NASA’s Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter, while the HRSC data forms the two coloured slices. Martian coordinates are displayed around the discs for geographical context.
Left: A red-green-blue-composite showing how the surface looks in visible light. Note the light blue colour of the northern and southern limbs, caused by the camera having a shallower view through the martian atmosphere (which therefore had a stronger influence on the images). Such regions were excluded from the global mosaic.
Right: An infrared-red-green-composite. Such unusual views (those including the infrared channel) offer a possible way to examine Mars’ surface reflectivity in various wavelengths, and have also been inspected to detect artefacts or holes in the data comprising the global mosaic.