Shortly before people across the world prepared to celebrate Christmas, the European Space Agency has released a spectacular image of the snowy Martian surface that looked like a veritable “winter wonderland.”
The image in question, taken by the space agency’s Mars Express spacecraft, shows an area of Mars in the Ultimi Scopuli region near the planet’s southern pole.
While this scene may indeed look like a winter landscape, the picture was actually taken on May 19 this year, when it was spring in Mars’ southern hemisphere and the ice there was actually “starting to retreat”, as ESA points out.
The image in question was a few days before the beginning of the new Mars year, which starts on December 26, as well as prior to the 19th anniversary of Mars Express’ arrival to the Red Planet on December 25, 2003.