The impact craters here, created as space rocks collided with Mars, are also fascinating. The large central crater shows signs of flowing material and carved-out valleys on its southern (left) rim, indicating that water may have existed here even after Lake Eridania disappeared.

The smaller crater to its south (left) has been eaten away by small gullies on its northern (right) flank, while the rightmost part of the image displays a number of ancient craters that are barely recognisable as craters, having been heavily broken down and eroded away over time.

Mars Express has been orbiting the Red Planet since 2003. It is imaging Mars’s surface, mapping its minerals, identifying the composition and circulation of its tenuous atmosphere, probing beneath its crust, and exploring how various phenomena interact in the martian environment.

The spacecraft’s HRSC has revealed much about Mars’s diverse surface in the past 20 years. Its images show everything from wind-sculpted ridges and grooves to sinkholes on the flanks of colossal volcanoes to impact craters, tectonic faults, river channels and ancient lava pools. The mission has been immensely productive over its lifetime, creating a far fuller and more accurate understanding of our planetary neighbour than ever before.