Images Show What’s Inside the Solar System’s Largest Canyon
Step aside, Grand Canyon, we now have some amazing photos of the largest canyon in the entire solar system.
It’s called the Valles Marineris and stretches for 2,500 miles across the surface of Mars. It’s so big that it would almost stretch from one side the United States to the other side.
The European Space Agency (ESA) released images taken by its Mars Express High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) of the series of canyons and they shed a lot of light on what the area looks like.
Photo Credit: ESA/DLR/FU Berlin
The images taken also allowed the agency to make a 3-D reconstruction of the canyons, like the photo below.
Photo Credit: ESA/DLR/FU Berlin
The images focused on two trenches that are part of western Valles Marineris. The trench below is known as Tithonium Chasma and stretches for 500 miles across the Red Planet.
Photo Credit: ESA/DLR/FU Berlin
The trenches are 7 miles deep and the 3-D reconstruction shows enormous mountains, sand dunes, and other topographic formations. The Mars Express has been busy orbiting the planet since 2003 taking images and probing the surface.
Finally, if you have a pair of 3-D glasses handy, check out this image of some of the incredible topography of Mars.
Pretty wild stuff!
Photo Credit: ESA/DLR/FU Berlin
