A brand new video has you flying like a Martian over an enormous canyon.
Latest footage from the European Space Agency’s longstanding Mars Express mission showcases an enormous valley system on Mars that stretches the length of Italy.
The video shows an enormous complex often known as Noctis Labyrinthus, a virtually 745-mile-long (1,190 kilometers) valley system sandwiched between the more famous Valles Marineris and an enormous volcano system, within the Tharsis region.
“The very best plateaus seen here represent the unique surface level before chunks of surface fell away,” ESA officials wrote in a press release. “In lots of places, gigantic landslides could be seen covering the valley slopes and floors, while other valley slopes show large dune fields created by sands blown each down and upslope by martian winds.”
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Mars Express and its high-resolution stereo camera, which took the footage, have been operating on the planet since 2003. Especially scientifically useful within the video are lowered regions of crust often known as graben, that are depressed in comparison with the environment.
These graben are a sign of the Red Planet’s volcanic past, ESA officials wrote. “The extreme volcanism within the nearby Tharsis region is responsible for the formation of those features. This volcanism caused large areas of Martian crust to arch upwards and grow to be stretched and tectonically stressed, resulting in it scaling down, faulting and subsiding.”
Mars Express and a fleet of other spacecraft from a wide range of nations orbit the Red Planet to regulate the planet’s weather and to make observations that might make clear its complicated past.
Mars’ atmosphere was once so thick, many scientists say, that water used to run on the planet’s surface. However the thin air and high radiation on the surface today would make it tough for organisms to survive on modern Mars — unless they live underground.
Surface missions, equivalent to NASA’s Curiosity and Perseverance rovers, also scrutinize the Martian landscape up close, giving us great looks on the Red Planet.