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Approaching Mars

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.

Posted by Tormod Guldvog
03 December, 2003 08:40:09

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Mars From 5.5 Million Kilometers
Copyright: European Space Agency, ESA

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.

This picture 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 Universit?t Berlin.

Mars Express, the first European space probe to visit another planet, is due to arrive in orbit around Mars on December 19, 2003.