Mars Is Heaven! - As seen by the Mars Express High Resolution Stereo Camera

This was taken on June 17, 2019, so just a couple of months ago. Now have a care here: The original image is a massive 2,772 x 7,526 pixels. I had to shrink it by a factor of two to fit the blog here, and I also dropped the resolution (i.e. used JPEG compression) to keep the file size from being so big our servers would've choked on it. Grab the full-res version and just scan around it. It's magnificent.

The colors are exaggerated; what's shown as blue here is mostly grayish basaltic regions, though the wispy clouds seen near the north pole (top) do tend to look blue.

Mars Is Heaven!

This is an amazing image from Mars Express. Look at the North Pole at the top of the image. Most of that is water ice.


This is the ESA webpage of the image.

The spacecraft imaged this slice across the planet’s surface in June 2019, when the camera took several global views. Visible at the top of the frame is Mars’ ethereal north pole: this is permanently covered by a cap of frozen water and carbon dioxide, which thickens in the northern martian winter and thins in the summer.

The MEX images from the High Resolution Stereo Camera are a work of art. FU Berlin is always in the credit of HRSC images. That is the Free University of Berlin where the camera was invented by Gerhard Neukum.

The surface reminds me of the moon all smacked up like that from meteor strikes. The colors look interesting, lots of different things going on and various resources around the place.

I don't see no margaritas and bikini babes, so I think your assessment of Mars being Heaven is a little off the mark.

a reply to: LookingAtMars

It's amazing how many meteors have smacked it. Imagine if we were geared to survive without an atmosphere. Houses would be nonexistent because we'd get slammed by meteors all the time.

a reply to: Blue Shift

The parties are underground.

P.S. If you're wondering about the title of this article, you should read more Ray Bradbury.

originally posted by: LookingAtMars
a reply to: Blue Shift

P.S. If you're wondering about the title of this article, you should read more Ray Bradbury.

I don't see any golden bees.

originally posted by: LookingAtMars
a reply to: Blue Shift

The parties are underground.

Sounds very cold. Brrrr...

Everything I see on Mars look's like the Planet was blown to bit's a long time ago , just by the way rocks of different types are just all over the place like they fell from the sky .

Question would be who or what destroyed the planet .

a reply to: Gargoyle91

Everything I see on Mars look's like the Planet was blown to bit's a long time ago

Mars (Ares) is the god of war and don't forget Deimos (Terror) and Phobos (Fear).

Looks like it was a war.

That's a very nice catch.

a reply to: LookingAtMars

In the year 2050, NASA will announce there is life on mars.

Turns out they put humans there already back in 1982, and did not tell us about it.

originally posted by: LSU2018
a reply to: LookingAtMars

It's amazing how many meteors have smacked it. Imagine if we were geared to survive without an atmosphere. Houses would be nonexistent because we'd get slammed by meteors all the time.

The earth would probably look the same with the same conditions. Mars doesn't have much of an atmosphere or liquid water to erode all those craters. Since earth is a mad majority water, we likely wouldn't see all of the impacts.


btw.... How about that Dallas - Saints game Sunday! I don't think I could have shown up for work the next day had NO lost... lol

originally posted by: LookingAtMars
a reply to: Gargoyle91

Everything I see on Mars look's like the Planet was blown to bit's a long time ago

Mars (Ares) is the god of war and don't forget Deimos (Terror) and Phobos (Fear).

Looks like it was a war.

Yeah, looks like mars has been in quite a few by the looks of it.

Look at those river shaped vapors flowing down from that ring around the north pole. It's just a little left of center and flowing south then to the west over that dark plain.

I wonder if that is frozen carbon dioxide vapors?

Life or not, Mars is truly an amazing alien world.

originally posted by: Gargoyle91
Everything I see on Mars look's like the Planet was blown to bit's a long time ago , just by the way rocks of different types are just all over the place like they fell from the sky .

Question would be who or what destroyed the planet .

A giant cosmic lightning bolt 🤓 👍



Amazing image OP, S&F!

It would be neat if we could get a satellite orbiting some planets streaming back to Earth a live 24/7 HD video feed, ah well, maybe one day 🤷🏻‍♂️