This movie, based on images taken by ESA’s Mars Express, highlights Mawrth Vallis, a 600 km-long, 2 km-deep outflow channel at the boundary of the southern highlands and the northern lowlands of Mars. <br /> <br />The movie begins at the mouth of the channel in Chryse Planitia, and heads towards the apparent source region in the Arabia Terra highlands. <br /> <br />The 4 billion year-old plateau is characterised by many impact craters, indicative of its great age. <br /> <br />Zooming in, patches of light and dark deposits are revealed. The light-toned layered sediments are among the largest outcrops of clay minerals – phyllosilicates – on Mars. Their presence indicates the presence of liquid water in the past. <br /> <br />The variety of water-bearing minerals and the possibility that they might contain a record of an ancient, habitable environment on Mars led scientists to propose Mawrth Vallis as a candidate landing site for the ExoMars 2020 mission. <br /> <br />The animation is based on a colour mosaic and digital terrain model derived from data collected by the high-resolution stereo camera on Mars Express and released earlier this year. <br /> <br />More info: <br />http://exploration.esa.int/mars/54721-mawrth-vallis/ <br />http://www.esa.int/spaceinimages/Images/2016/09/Mawrth_Vallis_martian_mosaic <br /> <br />Credits: ESA/DLR/FU Berlin, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO
