Verona Rupes: Tallest Known Cliff in the Solar System
Explanation:
Could you survive a jump off the tallest cliff in the Solar System?
Quite possibly.
Verona Rupes on
Uranus' moon
Miranda
is estimated to be 20 kilometers deep -- ten times the depth of the
Earth's Grand Canyon.
Given
Miranda's low gravity,
it would take about 12 minutes for a
thrill-seeking adventurer to fall from the top, reaching the bottom at the speed
of a
racecar -- about 200 kilometers per hour.
Even so, the
fall might be survivable given proper
airbag protection.
The
featured image
of Verona Rupes was captured by the passing
Voyager 2 robotic spacecraft in 1986.
How the
giant cliff
was created remains unknown, but is possibly related to a
large impact or
tectonic surface
motion.
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.
