Space probe sent images of the largest canyon in the solar system

Automatic interplanetary station of the European Space Agency Mars Express sent new images of the Mariner Valley on Mars. This is a giant canyon system that stretches over 4,000 km across the planet's surface and is up to 200 km wide with a depth of up to 7 km.

The new images focus on two major gorges in the western part of the valley: Io, 840 kilometers long, and Teton, 805 kilometers. Their images were obtained by 3D modeling based on frames from the Mars Express stereo camera.

Tethona Gorge features a patch of dark sand that gives the image a color contrast. This sand may have come from the nearby Tharsis volcanic region.

Next to the dark sand dunes are two light mounds. These "mounds" are more like mountains, rising to over 3,000 meters in height. Their surfaces were severely eroded by Martian winds. This indicates that they are formed from less durable material than the surrounding rock.

Between the two mounds there is a series of hills. And because Mars Express discovered water-bearing sulfate minerals in the region, these bulges could have formed when the liquid that once filled the chasm evaporated. Although this theory still causes heated debate among scientists.

On Earth, a canyon the size of the Mariner Valley would stretch from the northernmost point of Norway to southern Sicily, or almost from coast to coast in the US. Most researchers believe that this fault was formed in the early stages of the formation of Mars during the movement of tectonic plates.