30. Olympus Mons, the largest mountain in the solar system

Hooray! Give Me Space has reached the 30th blog! That is a LOT of blogs! It is halfway to 60! Anyway, today's blog is on Olympus Mons, the highest mountain in the solar system. It is so high it can be seen clearly from outer space. Olympus Mons is almost 22km high, two and a half times higher than Mt Everest.

Mars' surface is not flat. It is covered in mountains and ridges that look like the Himalayas in Nepal, China. Most of the mountains on Mars are extinct volcanoes. This means they are no longer active. Some of these volcanoes are really interesting to look at. Olympus Mons is a shield volcano. Shield volcanos are made by the slow leaking of lava that builds up into a mountain around the vent. Shield volcanoes like Olympus Mons and the volcanoes in Hawaii are more wide and flat that most other types of volcanoes. If it was a different type of volcano it might stretch beyond the atmosphere.

Olympus Mons is known to be the youngest of the largest volcanoes on Mars. The volcano formed just after the tectonic plates on Mars stopped moving. Having discovered it in 1998, NASA scientists want to know more about this wonder of Mars. however, they have found out much more.

The name has nothing to do with the Olympics if you were wondering. It was called Nix Olympica in the 1800's which means Olympic Snow in Latin then it changed its name to Olympus Mons which you now know today.

An amazing fact is that because Mars is much smaller than Earth, and the horizon is only 3km away, you can't stand on Mars and see the top of Olympus Mons. The curvature of Mars means that you can't see the top of it from the surface.

Olympus Mons is an extinct volcano and has stopped growing. It stopped growing because the tectonic plates stopped moving. The core of Mars has now cooled since the days of the Martian volcanoes, the crust of the planet has thickened and the volcanoes are extinct.

Humans will probably never land a probe on Olympus Mons because the atmosphere on top is very thin. There isn't enough time and atmosphere to slow down a probe with parachutes.

Image from wikipedia.org/wiki/Olympus_Mons

It is fascinating to think about mountains on other planets. I wonder if somebody will climb Olympus Mons one day? Or maybe bum shuffle down it? You never know.

Until next time..... Give me Space!!

Henry