Recently released images from the European Space Agency (ESA) provide an inspiring new perspective on Mars.
The images combine digital terrain models and color channels from the high-resolution stereo camera on board ESA’s Mars Express spacecraft. The razor-sharp, breathtaking images focus on two moats, the lus and Tithonium Chasmata (moats are also called chasma in this context).
The two chasms form part of the Valles Marineris canyon system on Mars. And together they are the largest canyon in the Solar System.
Photo: ESA/DLR/FU Berlin
Looking at lus and Tithonium Chasmata without something to scale can be deceiving. The dimensions in the game are actually titanic. Valles Marineris is the largest canyon in our solar system at 4,000 km long, 200 km wide and 7 km deep in places. This is deep enough to swallow the largest mountain in the Alps and larger than the Grand Canyon by many orders of magnitude.
In fact, it rivals the United States itself in some dimensions.
Image: NASA
ESA has some image analysis on its website. The photos include evidence of plate tectonic activity, erosion, landslides and volcanic sand.
Color-coded topographic map of lus and Tithonium Chasmata. Photo: ESA/DLR/FU Berlin
History of discoveries
This isn’t the first time Mars Express has delivered the goods. In 2018, the spacecraft found some evidence of liquid water hidden beneath the Martian polar ice caps. Mars Express has been orbiting Mars since 2003.
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