Newly released images from the European Space Agency (ESA) offer a stunning new perspective on Mars.
The photos combine digital terrain models and color channels from the high-resolution stereo camera on board ESA’s Mars Express spacecraft. The sharp and impressive images focus on two trenches, the lus and the Tithonium Chasmata (the trenches are also called chasma in this context).
The two chasms are part of the Valles Marineris canyon system on Mars. And together, they are the largest cannon in the solar system.
Photo: ESA/DLR/FU Berlin
Looking at the lus and Tithonium Chasmata without anything for scale can be deceiving. The stakes are truly 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.
Indeed, it contends with the United States itself in some dimensions.
Image: NASA
ESA has some analysis of the images on its website. The photos include evidence of tectonic plate activity, erosion, landslides and volcanic sand.
A color-coded topographic map of the lus and Tithonium Chasmata. Photo: ESA/DLR/FU Berlin
A story of discovery
This isn’t the first time the Mars Express has delivered the goods. In 2018, the spacecraft discovered evidence of liquid water hidden beneath the Martian polar caps. Mars Express has been orbiting Mars since 2003.