The European Space Agency announced Thursday that it has taken high-definition pictures of an ancient river nearly 1,000 miles long on Mars.

According to the report, the "striking" river also has "numerous tributaries" and is believed to be more than 4 miles wide and nearly 1,000 feet deep at some points. The agency believes that the river was carved by water between 1.8 and 3.5 billion years ago and went dry due to evaporation.

The agency has named the river Reull Vallis. The photos were taken with the ESA's Mars Express satellite last year.

"The region shows a striking resemblance to the morphology found in regions on Earth affected by glaciation," the ESA said in a statement. The discovery is "giving planetary geologists tantalizing glimpses of a past on the Red Planet not too dissimilar to events on our own world."

In September, NASA announced that its Curiosity Rover had discovered evidence of an "ancient stream" that "once ran vigorously" near the Gale Crater that the rover is exploring. According to that report, the stream may have been several feet deep.