Red Planet Mars: A world rich in Iron, new image of Mars shows it metallic richness

(Left) Red Planet Mars (Photo- Canva) / (Right) Metallic Mars ( Photo - ESAA/TGO/CaSSIS)

Mars, known as the red planet, is rich in metals, a recent picture of the Mawrth Vallis region on Mars revealed the richness of Mars in iron, aluminium and magnesium.

Mars's soil is reddish in colour due to the presence of minerals, and the iron oxide-rich surface that looks like rust on Earth makes Mars look red.

The images of the Mars mineral-rich region were taken by cameras that are orbiting in the Mars environment. The European Color and Stereo Surface Imaging System (CaSSIS) onboard the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) took the photo and revealed a striking diversity of colour.

In the image, the region exposing the yellow layer is proof of the presence of iron and magnesium-rich clays overlaid by white and blue layers of aluminium.

Mawrth Vallis is an interesting region on Mars for scientists to study due to its geological complexity and the region also has a water flow history that is making the scientists do research here.

This is also the region chosen as a landing site for the ExoMars Rosalind Franklin rover, but later the landing got updated to another region on the Mars surface.
The location of this region is south of the dichotomy boundary (where the southern highlands meet the northern lowlands), having a great history of 3.6 billion years of mineralogical diversity.

TGO has continued to collect data on Mars while orbiting to understand the past and habitat of the planet. Along with the CaSSIS working in the Mars environment for 6 years has observed Mars capture the astonishing behaviour and activities happening on the planet.

This European Space Agency (ESA) ExoMars mission is of great importance as the history of water on Mars and the study of the potential Martian life will be uncovered which will contribute to scientists' broadened understanding of Mars.