Raspberry ripples near Mars’s south pole

ESA’s Mars Express has imaged beautiful swirls of purple, pink and red near Mars’s south pole. These ridges of colour form Thyles Rupes: one of the most prominent cliff-faces in Mars’s ancient southern highlands.

We've added labels to highlight 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 17 February 2026 (orbit 27925). 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 of the original image is approximately 65 m/pixel and the image is centred at about 69°S/137°E.

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[Image description: A purple-pink-coloured patch of Mars, which is lighter on the left and darker on the right. A dark line runs from the top centre towards the bottom right, dividing the light and dark areas. At the centre of the image is a sharp light-coloured crater. Less sharp craters are scattered over the rest of the image. At the bottom left is a bright white-blue triangular patch, it looks icy. A small scale bar at the bottom right indicates that north is to the right, and that a line approximately one tenth of the image width is 50 km long.]