The Visual Monitoring Camera (VMC) is mounted on Mars Express, ESA's deep-space probe orbiting the Red Planet. It originally provided simple, low-resolution photos of the separation of the Beagle lander, and is now back in action as the 'Mars Webcam'. Although it was not designed to be used as a scientific instrument, it does provide fantastic images of Mars and its output is now being used by the Mars science community to support investigations of the Red Planet.

Links to new image sets are automatically posted via Twitter. Follow: @esamarswebcam

More via the VMC blog: blogs.esa.int/vmc

Copyright notice (Jan 2015) - All VMC images, past and present, are released by ESA under a CC license, as follows:

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Credit: ESA - European Space Agency, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO