The European Space Agency’s Mars Express has released new imagery capturing Kaiser Crater, a large basin on the Red Planet’s old southern highlands. The image highlights a striking mix of dune features and cratered terrain, offering a clear view of a landscape shaped by wind and past impacts. The purpose of this announcement is to share this fresh perspective from the orbiter’s High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) and to describe what the scene reveals about Mars’s history.
A prominent feature on Kaiser Crater’s floor looks like dark, gleaming sand waves. These dune ridges resemble metal in appearance and rise over 100 meters above the surrounding surface in places. Some dunes stand alone, while others connect to form a broader dune field that extends for several kilometers. The bright, frost-covered south-facing slopes give the dunes their metallic look.
The dune field is made up of two dune styles: transverse dunes, which are elongated and run in parallel patterns, and barchan dunes, which have a crescent shape. Both forms arise from wind moving sand in a consistent direction. The prevailing winds in this region come from the west, pushing sand to create the wave-like crests observed in the image. The fine, basaltic sand contains minerals such as pyroxene and olivine, which originate from volcanic activity and influence the surface’s ongoing movement and evolution.
Other features of Kaiser’s Crater on Mars
The right side of the frame focuses on a portion of Kaiser Crater’s floor. The crater itself spans about 180 kilometers across and reaches a depth of a few kilometers. A prominent ridge marks the crater’s southern rim, running down the middle of the image. On the left, numerous smaller craters are scattered across the plain. Some retain sharp edges, while others have softened with time. The noticeable height difference between the two sides stems from the crater’s formation and is further illustrated in a topographic map that accompanies the images.
Nearby craters are visible in the broader context but lie outside the main frame. These include Greeley, Le Verrier, and Neukum Craters. Each of these features has been featured in prior Mars Express releases. Neukum Crater, in particular, is named after Gerhard Neukum, a key figure in Mars Express history who helped lead the development of the HRSC instrument.
There are hints of water-related activity as well. In places, winds have stripped away surface layers to reveal lighter clay rock, indicating past conditions with water presence. Some surfaces show small gullies and narrow channels along steeper crater walls. These features might have formed through dry landslides, while older gullies could result from ice melt or shifting ground due to buried groundwater.
This image comes from the HRSC camera, one of Mars Express’s eight onboard instruments. Since its 2003 launch, the orbiter has mapped Mars with high resolution, color, and three-dimensional data, delivering insights that have reshaped our view of the planet. The HRSC was developed by the German Aerospace Center, with data processing conducted by the DLR Institute of Space Research and the Planetary Science and Remote Sensing group at Freie Universität Berlin.
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