Valles Marineris: The Grand Canyon of Mars

[Capt.Kangaroo]

Valles Marineris: The Grand Canyon of Mars

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.



Image Credit: Viking Project, USGS, NASA

[ilan]

Nice images, Cap. I will shall see what I can see relative to the Cat's Eye Nebula, but there is no way I can capture Mars at that level, but it is fun to give it a go anyways...

[Capt.Kangaroo]

Nice images, Cap. I will shall see what I can see relative to the Cat's Eye Nebula, but there is no way I can capture Mars at that level, but it is fun to give it a go anyways...

I hear ya, my scope is pretty big(8inch newtonian) but I cant capture anything of that nature. lol
Have a great Memorial Day...

[nada233]

great image captain.

[Capt.Kangaroo]

great image captain.

thanks nada...