# @europeanspaceagency on Instagram

- **Type:** Image
- **Original URL:** https://www.instagram.com/p/DL-SDyEtnTJ
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/35582125-europeanspaceagency-instagram
- **Thumbnail:** https://img.gondola.cc/tr:w-,h-,fo-auto/postThumbnails/2c7dc7f8c3.jpg
- **Posted:** 2025-07-13T10:06:38.000+00:00
- **Account Owner:** J.L.Lopez (@xandler80) — https://gondola.cc/xandler80

## Caption

Earth tones on Mars 🔴

At first glance, this Mars Express image might look a bit out of focus… but it’s not your eyes. You’re actually seeing a haze of fine dust swirling through the thin martian air — and if you look closely, you’ll spot four dust devils dancing across the surface!

Captured over Arcadia Planitia, a relatively flat and ancient lava plain just northwest of Mars’s mighty volcanoes, this view is packed with striking colours and features. From wind-carved ridges called yardangs to a crater that hints at near-surface water ice, there’s plenty to discover in this one frame.

The terrain here is shaped by wind, dust, and time. Notice how the colours shift from rust-reds to deep browns? That’s a sign of different materials — iron-rich sand in one part, silicate-rich in another — along with how particles of different sizes settle across the landscape.

Those bright specks with pinkish trails? They’re not glitches. They’re dust devils, speedy mini-tornadoes of dust that form when warm air rises and spins into a vortex. Some martian dust devils stretch up to 8 km tall — nearly the height of Mount Everest!

And in the bottom right? A 15 km-wide crater, with signs that water ice once lurked just below the surface. That’s why Arcadia Planitia is one of the regions being considered for future Mars missions.

Mars Express has been exploring the Red Planet since 2003 — and it’s still delivering breathtaking views and fresh science more than 20 years on.

📸 europeanspaceagency/ germanaerospacecenter/ fu_berlin; creativecommons BY-SA 3.0 IGO
📸 NASA/MGS/MOLA
🖥️ Labeled infographic: ESA; background image of Mars: NASA/USGS, ESA/DLR/FU Berlin; inset image: NASA/MGS/MOLA Science Team

## Stats

- **Views:** 0
- **Likes:** 8,414
- **Shares:** 0
- **Comments:** 35

## Credits

These are the roles credited on Gondola. Credits may be incomplete.
A brand, account owner, or featured person is not necessarily the creator.

| Name | Username | Profile | Role |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| ESA - European Space Agency | @europeanspaceagency | https://gondola.cc/europeanspaceagency | Government Organization |
| J.L.Lopez | @xandler80 | https://gondola.cc/xandler80 | Producer |
| J.L.Lopez | @xandler80 | https://gondola.cc/xandler80 | Editor |
| J.L.Lopez | @xandler80 | https://gondola.cc/xandler80 | Social Media Manager |
| J.L.Lopez | @xandler80 | https://gondola.cc/xandler80 | Publisher |
| J.L.Lopez | @xandler80 | https://gondola.cc/xandler80 | Copywriter |
| J.L.Lopez | @xandler80 | https://gondola.cc/xandler80 | Community Manager |

---
Copyright (c) Gondola