Watch: European spacecraft finds 20‑kilometre‑wide butterfly on Mars
The latest rendering from the High Resolution Stereo Camera aboard Mars Express provides a stunning three‑dimensional view of the terrain.
The European Space Agency’s longrunning Mars Express mission has captured an extraordinary natural artwork on the Martian surface, a vast impact crater shaped like a butterfly.
The 20kilometrewide formation lies in the Idaeus Fossae region, nestled within the planet’s northern lowlands, and stretches roughly 20 km easttowest and 15 km northtosouth.
The European Space Agency describes this “butterfly crater” as the result of a lowangle cosmic collision. When a space rock strikes the surface at a shallow trajectory, the energy of impact spreads asymmetrically, flinging material in two sweeping lobes that resemble wings. Between these outstretched wings lies an elongated central depression, the impact scar that completes the butterfly pattern.
advertisement
The latest rendering from the High Resolution Stereo Camera aboard Mars Express provides a stunning threedimensional view of the terrain. They showcase the intricate ridges and valleys formed by ejected material frozen in time since the impact. The Idaeus Fossae region itself is marked by fractures and faults, indicating a long geological history of tension and collapse in Mars’s crust.
Since beginning operations in 2004, Mars Express has produced some of the most detailed global maps of the Martian surface and atmosphere. It has also illuminated the planet’s watery past and offered closeup observations of its moons.
This latest view continues that legacy, blending science and artistry as it reveals how planetary impacts sculpt Mars into shapes that echo nature on Earth.
- Ends
)
