Today's Image of Mars is from the European Space Agency's Rosetta's flyby of Mars in 2007. This image was one of many Rosetta images of Mars recently released by the ESA. This spectacular image shows Phobos transiting Mars and the shadow left on the Martian surface by its largest moon, but that isn't all. We can also see Gale Crater, which is the August 2012 landing site for the Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity. This image also shows Gusev Crater, which was studied by Mars Exploration Rover Spirit and found to have numerous dust devils.
The ESA's Rosetta spacecraft was launched on Mar 2 2004 on a mission to study the comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko. In 2007 it did a flyby of Mars, which is when it took numerous images of Mars and its largest moon, Phobos.
Labels for this image come from The Planetary Society. Clicking on the image will take you to the high resolution version. [See the Planetary Society's article on the newly released Rosetta images]
