Mars Express: New images of the Red Planet show off its icy “brain terrain”

The second-largest crater on the left in the image above features something called "brain terrain," which refers to the brain-like texture on the icy surface. In its statement, ESA explains that brain terrain is most typically found on the northern plains and southern highlands of Mars.

Brain terrain is "where material has become deformed and warped in a concentric pattern that resembles the complex patterns and ridges found on the surface of the human brain," ESA says in its statement. The darker region in the images, meanwhile, shows where the ground has contracted under the heavy surface ice.

Uncovering Mars' mysteries since 2004

The Mars Express spacecraft was recently used to "listen" to China's Zhurong rover, which reached the Red Planet last year. The Zhurong rover relies on the orbiting spacecraft to relay its data back to Earth.

On its website, the ESA also shared a video in 2020 showing the Mars Express spacecraft's flyby of the Jezero Crater, where NASA's Mars Perseverance rover is located, the rover that recently provided evidence that the crater was once a large lake.

Mars Express started science operations in 2004 after reaching the Red Planet in 2003. Among the key discoveries made by the spacecraft are the finding of water, the detection of water-ice deposits underground, and evidence showing that Mars may have seen volcanic activity more recently than previously believed. Much of the data collected by the mission will guide future efforts to send humans to the Red Planet at some point in the 2030s.