ESA - Mars Express - Planet Mars from 5.5 million kilometres

Europe goes to Mars

Europe reclaims a stake in Mars exploration Space age transforms our knowledge about Mars

About Mars Express

Mars Express mission facts Mars Express instruments The mission The spacecraft The launcher

About Mars

Geography of Mars Water on early Mars?Signatures of life Facts about Mars

Meet the team

International collaboration Project Manager Project Scientist Principal Investigators ESA Spacecraft Operations Industry

Multimedia

VideoTalk Mars Express images Mars Express videos HRSC videos Animation in 11 languages Download wallpapers Download screensavers 3D Flash 'model'Make a model

Services

Comments

News

Planet Mars from 5.5 million kilometres

Mars from 5.5 million km, taken 1 December

3 December 2003
This picture (copyright ESA) was taken on 1 December 2003 from ESA's Mars Express spacecraft by the High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) under the responsibility of the Principal Investigator Prof. Gerhard Neukum. It was processed by DLR Institute for Planetary Research, also involved in the development of the camera, and by the Freie Universität Berlin.

This picture shows planet Mars as seen from a distance of about 5.5 million kilometres. This is a very unusual view of Mars because the planet is illuminated in a way never seen from Earth. The Sun shines on part of the western hemisphere, but more than a third of the Martian disc lies in the dark. The dark features at the top are part of the northern lowlands of Mars, where oceans possibly existed thousands of millions of years ago.

For further information please contact:

ESA Media Relations Service
Tel: +33(0)1.53.69.7155
Fax: +33(0)1.53.69.7690

Prof. Gerhard Neukum
Freie Universität Berlin
Department of Earth Sciences Malterserstr. 74-100, Building D
D-12249 Berlin
Germany
Tel: +49 30-83870-579 (or -575)
Fax: +49 30-83870-188
email: gneukum@zedat.fu-berlin.de

Send this page to a friend

Looking at Mars