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Article Images

Mars Express probes the Red Planet’s most unusual deposits

1 November 2007

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This is an impression of the completely deployed MARSIS experiment on board ESA's Mars Express orbiter. Its two 20-metre booms and the 7-metre booms are sprung out and locked into place.

The MARSIS experiment will map the Martian sub-surface structure to a depth of a few kilometres. The instrument's 40-metre long antenna booms will send low frequency radio waves towards the planet, which will be reflected from any surface they encounter.

Credits: ESA

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The images show the topographic divide between the Martian highlands and lowlands. The mysterious deposits of the Medusae Fossae Formation are found in the lowlands along the divide. The radar sounder on ESA's Mars Express orbiter, MARSIS, has revealed echoes, in the image to the right, from the lowland plains buried by these mysterious deposits.

The individual images can be downloaded here:

MARSIS composite left, MARSIS composite right

Credits: ESA/ASI/NASA/Univ. of Rome/JPL/Smithsonian

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The radargram in the upper panel of this image composite shows the subsurface of a unit of the Medusae Fossae Formation. The Medusae Fossae are mysterious deposits that form hills in the northern lowlands of Mars as seen in the bottom image. The top image is a time delay rendering of the radar waves emitted by Mars Express' MARSIS sounder showing subsurface echoes reflected back to the spacecraft.

These echoes from the subsurface are correlated with the projection of the lowland plains beneath the Medusae Fossae Formation deposits. The electrical properties inferred from the data suggest these deposits may be ice-rich.

Credits: ESA/ASI/NASA/Univ. of Rome/JPL/Smithsonian

Looking at Mars

Mars Express highlights

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In depth

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