Mars 'Grand Canyon' Snapped By Beagle Mother Ship (Picture)

Ananova ^ | 1-19-2002

[blam]

Mars 'Grand Canyon' snapped by Beagle mother ship

Mars Express, the mother ship of Britain's ill-fated Beagle 2, has sent back its first pictures of the Red Planet's Grand Canyon.

The pictures show Valles Marineris - more than six times deeper than the famous Grand Canyon on Earth and as long as the whole of Europe.

It is the first image of this size showing the surface of Mars in high resolution in colour and in 3D.

The lower part of the picture shows the same region in perspective view as if seen from a low-flying aircraft. It shows vast mountain ranges and valleys formed by water erosion.

The images were taken from 275km above the planet by the European Space Agency craft as it orbited Mars.

The information will provide scientists with a better knowledge of the planet and give information on possible future landing sites for space craft.

Dr John Murray, of the Open University, said: "At the end of the mission we will know the surface of Mars better than we do the Earth."

Mars Express will be studying the surface of Mars for the next two years. The images are available on ESA's website.

Story filed: 18:11 Monday 19th January 2004

[LiteKeeper]

YEC celebration of the wonders of God's Creation

[blam]

The BBC's version of the same story.

Europe's Stunning Red Planet View

[Neanderthal]

You can glimpse a UFO at the upper left . . .

[ambrose]

Picture my you know what... this is a computer generated image (and a bad one at that) based on data returned from the satellite.

[BushCountry]

Our image of Mars. They claim that there is no water, however, the rocks we pushed look like they were propelled through wet sand?

[leadhead]

Hope some experts here (FR) can explain the little holes in the reddish rocks and the grey one above it. Looks like stuff on the beach that the barnacles got at or some of the other sticky guys that dissolve rocks to eat.

[blam]

I bet a number of NASA folks are 'biting their tongue' to say something about what they think they see in the photo.

[leadhead]

I think ESA's translation program is a little too artsy fartsy.All the areas thatyou would expect to be craggy and rugged are all nicely smoothed and tapered.

Oh, I have trouble with some MRI concepts too.

[martin_fierro]

as long as the whole of Europe.

I dunno. France is a pretty big pit.

[blam]

"Looks like stuff on the beach that the barnacles got at or some of the other sticky guys that dissolve rocks to eat."

Looks like 'pond-scum' to me. I'm expecting anytime now to see a snail like creature to go slinking across the picture.

[Hillary's Lovely Legs]

[APFel]

Great illustration. It could use a image of Super Mario laying the smackdown to a Pooka Trooper, though.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

That is by far the best picture I have seen of that!

[doug from upland]

[greenwolf]

Hoagland's site is showing what looks to be the most interesting of the new images:

[doug from upland]

Someone is going to find this guy's ancestors on Mars ---

(for those who don't know, it is Art Bell's friend Richard C. Hoagland)

[rintense]

Is it me or does that photo look exceedingly fake? It looks like an artist's rendering.

[ErnBatavia]

Probably volcanic stuff...

[Capt. Tom]

You can glimpse a UFO at the upper left

I see it and the symbol on it.

Now look At the right side of the picture -see the man with the helmet on.

The helmet is in the upper right hand corner of the picture, his left elbow is against the right side of the picture and his raised right arm elbow is at the top of the picture. - tom