Caralis Chaos as seen by ESA’s Mars Express
This image from ESA’s Mars Express shows a region of Mars known as Caralis Chaos, where copious water is thought to have once existed in the form of an ancient lake.
Numerous labels have been placed across the terrain, highlighting features and regions of note. Be sure to click on these labels to explore the landscape in detail!
This image comprises data gathered by Mars Express’s High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) on 1 January 2024 (orbit 25235). It was created using data from the nadir channel, the field of view aligned perpendicular to the surface of Mars, and the colour channels of the HRSC. North is to the right. The ground resolution is approximately 15 m/pixel and the image is centred at about 38°S/177°E.
[Image description: This tan-coloured slice of ground is smoother to the left and becomes covered in small hills and mounds to the right. Wriggly, uneven ridges cut horizontally across the frame, while two prominent fault lines cut down vertically on the left and right. Large and small craters are peppered across the terrain. The worn-away boundaries of a once-colossal lakebed can be seen curving up and away from the bottom-centre to the top right; this skirts around the largest crater seen here, which sits in the middle of the picture encircled by rough, irregular valleys and channels.]
