Mars Express orbiter snaps an image of Mars’s ‘Grand Canyon’

By Georgina Torbet July 23, 2022

The sights of Mars are many and marvelous — and the European Space Agency (ESA)’s Mars Express orbiter recently captured one of the planet’s wonders, the Valles Marineris canyon system.

This enormous canyon system is nearly 2,500 miles long and over 120 miles wide, and is more than 4 miles deep in places. That makes it 20 times wider and five times deeper than Arizona’s Grand Canyon, according to ESA. This gigantic size makes it the largest known canyon system in the solar system, and studying it can help researchers learn about the geological processes which formed and continue to shape Mars.

This image from ESA’s Mars Express shows Ius and Tithonium Chasmata, which form part of Mars’ Valles Marineris canyon structure. This image comprises data gathered by Mars Express’ High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) on 21 April 2022. — This image from ESA’s Mars Express shows Ius and Tithonium Chasmata, which form part of Mars’ Valles Marineris canyon structure. This image comprises data gathered by Mars Express’ High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) on 21 April 2022. ESA/DLR/FU Berlin

The image, taken by the High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) on the Mars Express orbiter, shows two steep depressions called chasma: the Ius Chasma on the left and the Tithonium Chasma on the right. This is a true color image, meaning it shows the colors as your eye would see them, and you can see a large patch of dark dunes at the top of the image which look distinctly different from the lighter sandy-colored dunes seen elsewhere in the image. The dark sand which forms these darker dunes may have come from a nearby volcanic region called the Tharsis province.

This oblique perspective view of Tithonium Chasmata, which forms part of Mars’ Valles Marineris canyon structure, was generated from the digital terrain model and the nadir and colour channels of the High Resolution Stereo Camera on ESA’s Mars Express. — This oblique perspective view of Tithonium Chasmata, which forms part of Mars’ Valles Marineris canyon structure, was generated from the digital terrain model and the nadir and color channels of the High Resolution Stereo Camera on ESA’s Mars Express. ESA/DLR/FU Berlin

Another view of the Tithonium Chasmata was created from a digital model of the terrain made using data from the HRSC camera. This shows the dramatic structure of the canyon better, with large mountain-like structures which rise nearly two miles high. The patterns seen draping down from the peaks are caused by erosion, as strong winds push material down the slopes.

These enormous groves in the martian landscape are thought to have been created when tectonic plates pulled apart. Mars is not tectonically active today, and for a long time scientists thought that plate tectonics existed only on Earth. But research in the last decade has suggested that Mars was once tectonically active as well, and canyon structures like this are remnants from that time.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics

Tech News

Georgina Torbet

Space Writer

Georgina is the Digital Trends space writer, covering human space exploration, planetary science, and cosmology. She…

Space

How much fuel is left in this 20-year-old Mars orbiter?

NASA’s 2001 Mars Odyssey orbiter is depicted in this illustration. The mission team spent most of 2021 assessing how much propellant is left on the orbiter, concluding it has enough to stay active through at least 2025.

Designing, building, and launching a spacecraft is hugely expensive. That's why NASA missions to Mars are designed with the hope that they'll last as long as possible -- like the famous Opportunity rover which was supposed to last for 90 days and managed to keep going for 15 years. The longer a mission can keep running, the more data it can collect, and the more we can learn from it.

That's true for the orbiters which travel around Mars as well as the rovers which explore its surface, like the Mars Odyssey spacecraft which was launched in 2001 and has been in orbit around Mars for more than 20 years. But the orbiter can't keep going forever as it will eventually run out of fuel, so figuring out exactly how much fuel is left is important -- but it also turned out to be more complicated than the NASA engineers were expecting.

Space

See the Ingenuity helicopter’s stunning image of a Martian sunset

NASA's Ingenuity Mars Helicopter acquired this image using its high-resolution color camera. This camera is mounted in the helicopter's fuselage and pointed approximately 22 degrees below the horizon. This image was acquired on Feb. 22, 2023 (Sol 714 of the Perseverance rover mission).

The tiny helicopter Ingenuity is continuing to explore Mars, gearing up for its 47th flight. That's a pretty stunning achievement, considering it was originally designed to perform just five flights and has had to deal with changing seasonal conditions including colder temperatures and dropping atmospheric pressure.

Despite the inhospitable environment, the helicopter continues to operate and recently made its longest flight in almost a year. And now, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory has shared an image taken by Ingenuity during its 45th flight which shows an otherworldly sunset, as the sun slinks over the Martian horizon.

Space

Rovers could explore lava tubes on Mars or the moon using breadcrumbs

In this artist's impression of the breadcrumb scenario, autonomous rovers can be seen exploring a lava tube after being deployed by a mother rover that remains at the entrance to maintain contact with an orbiter or a blimp.

When looking for safe places for astronauts to stay when they venture away from Earth to new moons and planets, one strong contender is that they should stay underground. Being underground means more protection from harmful space radiation and less exposure to weather events, and nature already creates environments that could be ideal bases in the form of lava tubes. Created when molten lava flows under the surface, lava tubes are thought to exist on both Mars and the moon, providing potential shelter for human explorers.

Now, new research from engineers at the University of Arizona proposes a method for using robots to scout out lava tubes for use as habitats ahead of the arrival of human astronauts. "Lava tubes and caves would make perfect habitats for astronauts because you don't have to build a structure; you are shielded from harmful cosmic radiation, so all you need to do is make it pretty and cozy," said lead author of the research, Wolfgang Fink, in a statement.