Valles Marineris: The Grand Canyon of Mars
Explanation:
Mars will look good in Earth's skies over the next few days -- but not this good.
To get a view
this amazing, a spacecraft had to actually visit the red planet.
Running across the image center, though, is one the largest canyons in the
Solar System.
Named
Valles Marineris,
the grand valley extends
over 3,000 kilometers long, spans as much as
600 kilometers across,
and delves as much as 8 kilometers deep.
By comparison, the
Earth's Grand Canyon
in Arizona, USA is 800 kilometers long, 30 kilometers across,
and 1.8 kilometers deep.
The origin of the
Valles Marineris remains unknown, although a leading hypothesis holds that it
started as a
crack billions of years ago as the planet cooled.
Several geologic processes have been identified in
the canyon.
The
featured mosaic was
created from over 100 images of
Mars taken by
Viking Orbiters in the 1970s.
Tomorrow,
Mars and Earth will
pass the closest in 11 years, resulting in the red planet being
quite noticeable toward the southeast after sunset.
Authors & editors:
Robert Nemiroff
(MTU) &
Jerry Bonnell
(USRA)
NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings,
and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris.
Specific
rights apply.
A service of:
LHEA at
NASA /
GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
