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. This image is a close-up of the mosaic, with stretched contrast, and shows the canyon system Valles Marineris with annotated surface details: sulphate deposits, haze and fog, and cloud cover. This tectonic feature stretches more than 4000 km east-west and up to 700 km north-south, and is the biggest and most dramatic canyon system in the Solar System.
Faint bright-to-light blue areas show clouds in the atmosphere. The depths of Valles Marineris are also covered by the fog and haze that likes to form in martian surface depressions at this time of year.