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The European Space Agency (ESA) on May 30 released a new orbiter flyover footage of Mars that features the strikingly diverse surface of the Red Planet, covered in all manner of scratches and scars, providing insight into the events of its ancient past.

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Created using data from the Mars Express High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC), the new video depicts the fractured, uneven appearance of the Nili Fossae trenches. 

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It also offers a bird's eye view of the nearby Jezero Crater, where NASA's Perseverance rover landed in 2021 to search for signs of life that may have once inhabited the ancient lake that filled the crater.

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The Nili Fossae Trenches on Mars

The Nili Fossae trenches comprise parallel trenches hundreds of metres deep and several hundred kilometres long, stretching out along the eastern edge of a massive 1,900-kilometer-wide impact crater named Isidis Planitia. 

The ESA’s Mars Express orbiter, which arrived at the Red Planet in 2003, surveyed Mars' Nili Fossae trenches. These trenches have been a cynosure of scientists in recent years because of the prospect of revelations about Mars’s ancient and water-rich past.

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"Scientists have focused on Nili Fossae in recent years due to the impressive amount and diversity of minerals found in this area, including silicates, carbonates, and clays — many of which were discovered by Mars Express' OMEGA instrument," ESA officials said in the description of the orbiter's recent video on YouTube. 

"These minerals form in the presence of water, indicating that this region was very wet in ancient Martian history," the officials further said.

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These trenches are believed to have formed following a colossal meteorite impact some 4 billion years ago. Following the impact, which created the Isidis Planitia crater, areas of the Martian surface would have cracked and crumbled, forming the sizeable scars seen by the orbiter today. 

According to the ESA, similar features, called Amenthes Fossae, can be found on the other side of the crater too. 

"Much of the ground here formed over 3.5 billion years ago, when surface water was abundant across Mars," ESA officials wrote in the video description. 

"Scientists believe that water flowed not only across the surface here but also beneath it, forming underground hydrothermal flows that were heated by ancient volcanoes," the description further read.

Researchers used images captured by the orbiter, along with digital terrain models of Mars to create the 3D rendering of the landscape used for the flyover video. 

This data not only aids in understanding Mars' past but also helps inform scientists where to land exploratory spacecraft in the future.

(With inputs from agencies)