ESA's Mars Express captures a 30 km-wide crater that resembles human eyeball

The European Space Agency's Mars Express mission has beamed back a picture of a 30 km-wide unnamed crater on the Red Planet. Captured on 25 April 2022, this image shows part of Aonia Terra, an upland region in the southern highlands of Mars known for its impressive craters.

Sharing the image, the agency said, "The 30 km-wide unnamed crater at the centre of the image is nestled within a landscape of winding channels. Conjuring images of veins running through a human eyeball, these channels are likely to have carried liquid water across the surface of Mars around 3.5–4 billion years ago."

The image captured by ESA's Mars Express reveals many different colours in the surface around the crater, suggesting that the region is made up of a variety of materials. Inside the crater, there are several buttes and cone-shaped hills.

Close to the crater lies the 200 km-wide Lowell crater, which is thought to have been formed almost four billion years ago, during the Solar System's 'Late Heavy Bombardment' period.

Our @esascience Mars Express mission captured this 30 km-wide crater nestled between winding channels on #Mars - resembling veins running through a human eyeball 👁 The channels likely carried liquid water around 3.5–4 billion years ago!👉https://t.co/sKbNxVAQxx #ExploreFarther pic.twitter.com/SBfBeOB8OO

— ESA (@esa) June 10, 2022

Mars Express has been exploring the Martian atmosphere and surface from polar orbit since its arrival at the Red Planet in 2003. The mission's main objective is to search for sub-surface water, which could exist in the form of underground rivers, pools, aquifers or permafrost.

The instruments onboard the Mars Express including the High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC), responsible for these new images, has revealed much about Mars' diverse surface features.

Initially, the mission also carried a small lander, called Beagle 2, but it was lost on arrival in December 2003.