An ESA probe unveils the landscape of Mars shaped by water, wind and ice

The space probe from the European Space Agency, Mars Express, has returned the picture of a fascinating part of the surface of the red planet: a sandy, rocky, fragmented, wind-shaped section, Water and ice. Located at the edge of the northern and southern hemispheres, the region is an example of past activity on the planet.

Mars is a planet in two halves. In some places, the northern hemisphere of the planet is a few kilometers shorter than the south; This clear topographic division is known as the Martian dichotomy and is a particularly distinctive feature on the surface of the red planet.

The northern part of Mars also has large tracts of smooth land, while the southern regions of the planet are heavily marked and cratered.

It is thought that this is the result of past volcanic activity, which has resurfaced parts of Mars to create smooth plains in the north – and left other areas intact and ancient.

The craggy and rocky escarpment known as Nili Fossae lies at the edge of this north-south divide, researchers said.

This region is filled with rocky valleys, small hills and flat relief clusters (called mesas in geological terms), with some pieces of crustal rock appearing to be sunk into the surface, creating a number of features similar to ditches like graben.

As in most of the environment, and despite Mars' reputation as a dry and arid world, it is thought that water played a key role in the sculpture of Nili Fossae because of the 39, continuous erosion.

In addition to visual cues, traces of past interactions with water have been identified in the (upper) western part of this image – instruments such as the Mars Express OMEGA Spectrometer have identified clay minerals here, which are key indicators of the previous presence of water. .

The altitude of Nili Fossae and its surroundings, shown in the topographic view above, is somewhat varied; the regions on the left and on the lower left (south) are higher than those on the other side of the frame (north), illustrating the aforementioned dichotomy.

This upland terrain seems to consist mainly of rocky plateaus, while the lower ground includes smaller rocks, mesas, hills, etc., the two sections being roughly separated by erosion canals and valleys. .

It is thought that this split is the result of material shifts on Mars, hundreds of millions of years ago. Similar to the glaciers of the Earth, water and ice flows through the Martian terrain and carve and erode slowly over time, also resulting in materials.

In the case of Nili Fossae, this has been transported from the highest to the lowest areas, with pieces of resistant rock and robust materials remaining largely intact, but moving downward to form the mesas and mosses. reliefs seen today.

It is believed that the shapes and structures scattered in this image have been shaped over time by flows of not only water and ice, but also wind.

Examples can be seen in this image by areas of the surface that appear to be particularly dark on the ocher background, as if smeared with coal or ink.

These are areas of darker volcanic sand, which have been transported and deposited by the current Martian winds. The wind often moves sand and dust over the surface of Mars, creating undulating dune fields on the planet and forming a multi-colored and fragmented terrain like Nili Fossae.