---
title: "Mars Express Sees Strange Craters in Arabia Terra"
description: "This new image from ESA's Mars Express orbiter shows bluish wind-blown deposits inside eroded craters in the Arabia Terra region of Mars."
date: "2015-06-02"
modified: "2015-08-13"
authors:
  - name: "Jason Hudson"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/jasonh"
url: "https://futurism.com/mars-express-sees-strange-craters-in-arabia-terra"
categories:
  - "Astronomy"
  - "Mars"
  - "Space"
tags:
  - "space"
---

# Mars Express Sees Strange Craters in Arabia Terra

![Default Futurism featured image](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Futurism-Filler-Image.jpg>)

- The craters in this image all show different degrees of erosion. Some still have defined outer rims and clear features within them, while others are much smoother and featureless, almost seeming to run into one another or merge with their surroundings.
- At first glance, the image seems to show something amazing in this crater, and in one of its neighbors to the right: is this a hint of blue liquid water? No, it is an optical illusion caused by the image processing.
- The blue-hued patches lying within the ragged craters are actually dark sediments that have built up over time. Again, this is due to the winds, which carry dark, volcanic, basalt-rich deposits across the Red Planet.