Even though the Martian air blows thinner than at the summit of Everest, given eons enough it can carve through solid stone.

‘Mangala’ is the Hindu word for ‘Mars.’ Experts say the Mangala Fossae region, seen here by the Mars Express orbiter, shows signs of both catastrophic water floods and large flows of lava.

This view of the Iani Chaos region comes from the Mars Express orbiter.

Ganges Chasma is a side canyon at one end of the vast Valles Marineris trough system of Mars.

When it left Earth, mission managers purposely directed the Mars Express spacecraft to fly slightly off target so that the upper rocket stage wouldn’t also go to Mars. They later corrected the orbiter’s trajectory so that it arrived at the Red Planet while the rocket stage sailed on into deep space.