The new photo of the Martian landscape suggests that the planet once carried water. The image released by the European Space Agency (ESA) shows a crater that looks like the eye of the Sahara.
After it was shared on Twitter, many including experts found it fascinating for the striking similarity to the desert on Earth. ESA added that the image looks similar to veins running through a human eyeball. In some places, the structure appears to be raised above the surrounding land.
ESA's Mars Express took the photograph on Aonia Terra in the southern highlands of Mars on April 25, 2022. The region is known for remarkable craters.
The bull's eye crater in the Sahara desert in western Africa is a prominent geological feature due to its highly symmetrical nature and deeply eroded appearance. Discovered in the 1930s, it was determined in the 1960s that the crater is formed by terrestrial processes like water flowing and not due to an impact.
ESA said the unnamed crater from Mars is "nestled within a landscape of winding channels". The agency thinks these channels carried liquid water. "These channels are likely to have carried liquid water across the surface of Mars around 3.5-4 billion years ago".
The agency further said the channels on the Mars crater are partly filled with a dark material. It is suspected to be erosion-resistant sediment settled at the bottom of the channels when water flowed through them. It could also be lava. Isolated hills are also seen in the image.
The crater on the red planet appears to have several colours on the surface. This suggests the region is made up of a variety of materials. "The colour is warm red near the south, melting into a darker brownish-grey closer to the crater," said ESA.
The photograph was taken by ESA's Mars Express which has been orbiting the planet since 2003. It has been clicking various photographs of the Martian surface and assessing the composition of its atmosphere.