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Picture of the day -
August 7, 2006
Valles Marineres - The Grand Canyon Of Mars
Click photo to enlarge
Today's picture features the planet
Mars
and Valles Marineres, the largest canyon in our
solar
system. As you can see, at 1864 miles in length, Valles
Marineres (the long gray feature) covers much of the diameter of the
planet. And since it is a whopping 5 miles deep, our own
Grand Canyon
is but a shallow ditch by comparison!
Although there is no way to know for sure how Valles Marineres was
created, the most widely accepted theory is that billions of years
ago the planet cooled off and a large crack began to spread across
the surface. Over the eons, various forces of nature worked along
the length of the crack resulting in many interesting geologic
features.
When humans finally get around to exploring the surface of Mars in
person,
there is little doubt that Valles Marineres will be one of the first
surface features to be visited. After all, with an 1864 mile long
and 5 mile deep crack in the planet's surface, it will be quite easy
to garner many details about the composition of our most earthlike
planetary
neighbor.
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