Mars is becoming clearer to us every day thanks to the dozen functioning robots we currently have on the red planet.
In the latest release from the European Space Agency's (ESA) Mars Express, a unique feature of Mars's geology is shown with breathtaking detail.
These grooves are part of a giant fault system on Mars and look like giant scratches on the planet's surface.
The scale of the troughs is up to 350 meters (1,148 feet) deep and 10 kilometers wide and can stretch for up to six miles.
The true color of the image shows what humans would see if they were looking at the region from their own eyes.
The image was created from a digital terrain model of Mars and using the color channels of the High Resolution Stereo Camera on the Mars Express.
The CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO is from theESA/DLR/FU Berlin.
The image above has an oblique perspective, while the shot below has a top-down view.
The CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO is from theESA/DLR/FU Berlin.
The images are centered at 43 degrees north and 18 degrees east and have a ground resolution of 18 meters.
What are we looking at?
The east side of Alba Mons is home to Tantalus Fossae, which are hollow depressions.
Alba Mons is the biggest volcano on Mars, with its volcanic flow fields extending at least 1,350 km. Its elevation is only 6.8 kilometers at its highest point.
When Alba Mons lifted up out of the planet's crust, the area around it became warped and broken.
The CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO is from theESA/DLR/FU Berlin.
The Tantalus Fossae faults are a great example of a surface feature called grabens.
The western side of Alba Mons has a similar feature.
The images may help us understand how the surface of Mars formed.
It is thought that the structures didn't all form at once, but one after the other, which causes some of the troughs to criss-cross each other.
The impact crater you see in the images has grabens running across it, suggesting it was there first. There is a smaller crater to the left of the troughs in the top two images.
Mars Express has been on Mars for more than 18 years. We are looking forward to seeing more of its views.
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