The image, released by the European Space Agency on Jan. 19, shows a landscape that appears to resemble Earth's Grand Canyon, with deep valleys gouged out of the surface rock by water that scientists now suspect may have migrated beneath Mars' surface and remain in the form of ice.

The ESA described the first pictures, shot at a resolution of 12 meters (39 feet) per pixel, as "very promising."

The image, it said, shows "a landscape which has been predominantly shaped by the erosional action of water," with surface features including mountain ranges, valleys and mesas

The picture was taken Jan. 14 by the Mars Express High-Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC). It shows an area 1057 miles (1,700 km) long and about 41 miles (65 km) wide that was captured by the HRSC as the satellite flew at an altitude of 171 miles (275 km).

HRSC is one of seven observing instruments on Mars Express. The satellite's radar imager, to be activated in April, is designed to penetrate several kilometers beneath the surface of the planet to hunt for water sources.

Mars Express is set to orbit the planet for at least one Martian year -- almost two Earth years.

The orbiter carries two-thirds of the European Mars mission's experiments, among them instruments that will search for ultraviolet atmosphere.

Carrying its companion Beagle 2 lander, Mars Express was launched last June from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The lander, released toward the surface by the orbiter Dec. 19, hasn't been heard from since its own scheduled landing on Christmas Day.

The Associated Press contributed to this report

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