The European Space Agency (ESA) has released a new never-before-seen image of Mars, which is a visible change from the reddish glow of the Red Planet. The colour and composition mosaic has been created to mark the 20 years of Mars Express probe hovering above the Red Planet. The image was created by using the data from the Mars Express’s High-Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC), which photographs Mars’s surface from an altitude of about 300 km. To create the image, the probe gathered 90 images at higher altitudes going as up as 4000 to 10,000 km. During its jump, it captured areas of around 2500 km wide and then the images were stitched together to form the full global view of the next-door neighbour. “Such large-scale images are typically obtained to observe weather patterns on Mars – but even in the absence of atmospheric phenomena they offer wonderful views of the planet’s surface,” the European Space Agency, said in a statement. The image provides new information about the surface of Mars, which generally appears reddish due to high levels of oxidised iron. In the new image, the large parts of the planet appear to be rather dark and blue-toned filled with … Continue reading New image of Mars released: A visible change from the reddish glow of Planet