The sights of Mars are many and amazing – and the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Mars Express orbiter recently captured one of the planet’s wonders, the Valles Marineris canyon system.
This vast system of canyons is nearly 2,500 miles long and over 120 miles wide, and in places more than 4 miles deep. That makes it 20 times wider and five times deeper than Arizona’s Grand Canyon, according to the ESA. This gigantic size makes it the largest known system of canyons in the Solar System, and studying it can help researchers learn about the geologic processes that shaped and continue to shape Mars.
This image from ESA’s Mars Express shows the Ius and Tithonium Chasmata, which are part of the Valles Marineris canyon structure on Mars. This image contains data collected by the High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) on Mars Express on April 21, 2022. ESA/DLR/FU Berlin
The image taken by the Mars Express orbiter’s High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) shows two steep depressions called chasma: Ius Chasma on the left and Tithonium Chasma on the right. This is a true color image, meaning it shows the colors as your eye would see them, and you can see a large section of dark dunes at the top of the image that look distinctly different from the lighter, sand-colored dunes seen elsewhere in image. The dark sand that forms these darker dunes may come from a nearby volcanic region called the Tharsis Province.
This oblique perspective view of the Tithonium Chasmata, which is part of the Valles Marineris canyon structure on Mars, was generated from the digital terrain model and nadir and color channels of ESA’s Mars Express high-resolution stereo camera. ESA/DLR/FU Berlin
Another view of Tithonium Chasmata was created from a digital terrain model made using data from the HRSC camera. This better shows the dramatic structure of the canyon, with large mountain structures that rise almost two miles high. The patterns seen cascading from the summits are caused by erosion as strong winds push material down the slopes.
These vast groves in the Martian landscape are believed to have been created when tectonic plates tore apart. Today, Mars is not tectonically active, and for a long time scientists thought that plate tectonics existed only on Earth. But research over the past decade suggests that Mars was once tectonically active, too, and canyon structures like this are remnants of that time.
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