The images show the spacecraft's slow descent from high above the planet, speeding up as closest approach is passed and then slowing down again as the distance increases. Towards the start of the video, the giant Martian volcanoes can be seen followed by the beginning of the ice coverage around the South Pole as the spacecraft crosses over to the night side of the planet. Shortly after emerging back onto the day side of the planet, the beautiful North Pole can be observed, followed by the long climb away from the planet over the equator. Finally, at the end of the movie, the disk of Phobos can be seen crossing from top to bottom of the image.


 
This movie was generated from 600 individual still images captured by the Visual Monitoring Camera (VMC) on board Mars Express during the 8194th orbit on 27 May 2010 between 02:00 and 09:00 UTC (04:00-11:00 CEST) and were transmitted to Earth a few hours later via ESA's 35m New Norcia deep space station in Australia.

The portion of the movie where the planet beneath the spacecraft was dark has been largely removed since no detail was visible.

The images show the spacecraft's slow descent from high above the planet, speeding up as closest approach is passed and then slowing down again as the distance increases. Towards the start of the video, the giant Martian volcanoes can be seen followed by the beginning of the ice coverage around the South Pole as the spacecraft crosses over to the night side of the planet. Shortly after emerging back onto the day side of the planet, the beautiful North Pole can be observed, followed by the long climb away from the planet over the equator. Finally, at the end of the movie, the disk of Phobos can be seen crossing from top to bottom of the image.


 
This animation was generated by Celestia simulation software to show the orbital path of Mars Express during the 8194th orbit on 27 May 2010 between 02:00 and 09:00 UTC (04:00-11:00 CEST).

This animation shows how Mars Express travelled around the Red Planet while the Visual Monitoring Camera (VMC) snapped individual still images every minute, which have been used to generate a separate time-compressed video. This simulation shows the timeline of the orbit at top-right of the image and the red line shows the path of Mars Express as it orbits Mars. Inset at bottom-left is the actual pointing of Mars Express, constantly turning to keep the field of view of the VMC camera pointed at the planet.



Release date: 28 June 2010