UNPRECEDENTED! Images Show That Mars Has The Largest Canyon In The Solar System

UNPRECEDENTED! Images show that Mars has the largest canyon in the Solar System

Arizona researchers were able to capture images showing the Valles Marineris, the gorge ten times larger than the Grand Canyon so Mars has the largest canyon in the Solar System.

In addition to Mount Olympus (or Olympus Mons), the largest volcano in the Solar System, Mars, our beloved red planet, is also home to the largest canyon ever known. Since 2006, researchers at the University of Arizona in Tucson have been able to capture some images using the HiRISE (High-Resolution Imaging Science Experiment) camera, a high-resolution lens that is onboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter to record images of the canyon in Mars.

The Martian canyon became known as Valles Marineris, and its size is more than 4 thousand km in the equatorial region of the red planet and is still 200 kilometers wide and 10 kilometers deep.

Larger than the Grand Canyon

Valles Marineris, the largest canyon in the Solar System. (Image- NASA - JPL - University of Arizona) — Valles Marineris, the largest canyon in the Solar System. (Image- NASA – JPL – University of Arizona)

On Earth, the largest gorge is the Grand Canyon, located in Arizona, USA, which has an extension that corresponds to almost a quarter of the circumference of the planet on which we live. In comparison to this, the Valles Marineris is ten times larger in length and three times deeper.

What science still cannot explain is how this gorge formed on Mars, since canyons are formed from erosion caused by a river, as in the case of the Grand Canyon that was born after a process of soil erosion that lasted billions of years with the movement of the Colorado River. According to experts, it is difficult to believe that a river of this size existed on the red planet and who at any given time was able to form a canyon.

Grand Canyon, Arizona, USA. (Image- ISTOCK)

Although it is not possible to prove that this actually happened, there are indications of the existence of water in this and other regions of the planet, where minerals were found that contained water molecules. This suggests that in the past, it was possible for a river to cross Mars’ soil.

Researchers at the European Space Agency (ESA) believe that the Valles Marineris canyon arose after the eruption of a group of volcanoes located in Tharsis, a region close to the Martian gorge.

Source: Live Science.

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UNPRECEDENTED! Images show that Mars has the largest canyon in the Solar System