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

[all4one]

Hmmmm....well that picture reminds me of one of these Moai stone statues from Easter Island, lying on it's side.

[ThePythonicCow]

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

The poster left off the caption, which casts a whole new light on this picture:

The picture shows a portion of a 1,700-km-long and 65-km-wide swathe of Valles Marineris. It is in two parts. The top looks down; the lower part of the picture shows the same region in perspective view, as if seen from a low-flying aircraft. This perspective view was generated on computer.

The horizontal dark swath isn't the canyon, it's the split between the two views.

[chmst]

The little holes are caused by gas bubbles in the molten rock when it was first blasted out of a volcano (or flowed out as in lava). What kind of gas? Most likely H2O. What we really want to see are a lot of rounded rocks like you would find in a stream.

[Consort]

[VOA]

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.

Time to start the mutant mule breeding program...we're gonna' need some thin-air-breathin'
mules to take tourists up/down that canyon in a few generations!

[blam]

"Time to start the mutant mule breeding program...we're gonna' need some thin-air-breathin' mules to take tourists up/down that canyon in a few generations!"

LOL. My friend of 40 years still kids me about my plan in the early 70's to do that with rabbits, to be used for food on Mars.

[VOA]

...my plan in the early 70's to do that with rabbits, to be used for food on Mars.

Hey, I wouldn't laugh at you. Seeing how making more rabbits is their forte,
I suspect that if you started with a buck and couple of does...by now you'd
have a couple millions of the buggers.
And I'm sure you'd find a couple of mutant bunnies who'd do just fine
on reduced atmospheric pressure!

[blam]

Every 28 days...a whole new crew, huh?

[Mr. Mulliner]

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

I was thinking it looked like a Roger Dean painting. If they start telling us about floating jungles, my suspicions will be confirmed.