NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day Collection

Valles Marineris: The Grand Canyon of Mars

The largest canyon in the Solar System [ http://www.nineplan…] cuts a wide swath across the face of Mars [ http://www.nineplan…]. Named Valles Marineris [ http://astrogeology…], 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 [ http://en.wikipedia…] in Arizona, USA is 800 kilometers long, 30 kilometers across, and 1.8 kilometers deep. The origin of the Valles Marineris [ http://en.wikipedia…] remains unknown, although a leading hypothesis holds that it started as a crack [ http://antwrp.gsfc.…] billions of years ago as the planet cooled [ http://helio.estec.…]. Recently [ http://antwrp.gsfc.…], several geologic processes have been identified in the canyon [ http://www.windows.…]. The above mosaic [ http://nssdc.gsfc.n…] was created [ http://nssdc.gsfc.n…] from over 100 images of Mars [ http://antwrp.gsfc.…] taken by Viking [ http://pds.jpl.nasa…] Orbiters in the 1970s.

Viking Project [ http://nssdc.gsfc.n…], USGS [ http://www.usgs.gov/], NASA [ http://www.nasa.gov/]

Mars

Arizona

Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC)

Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL)

Earth

Mars

Viking

Altimeter

Mars Global Surveyor Orbiter (MGS)

http://antwrp.gsfc.…

SPD-APOD-ap060730