The north pole of Mars looks a lot like a Cinnabon

European Space Agency

NASA and other space agencies have been observing the Martian poles in some detail for the better part of five decades, beginning with the Mariner 9 spacecraft. Since then, augmented by increasingly high-resolution photos and better data, scientists have successfully teased out details of the ice-covered poles. And now, finally, we can come to a singular conclusion: The north pole of Mars looks delicious.

Seriously, the polar caps are pretty interesting features. And now we can see the north pole for the first time in a "perspective view," a three-dimensional image that better showcases their depth and detail. These arresting new images were created from elevation data and 32 orbital passes, made between 2004 and 2010, by the European Space Agency's Mars Express spacecraft. The space agency released the mosaic earlier this month.

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