43. Valles Marineris

Five times as long, and four times as deep as the Grand Canyon, Valles Marineris is one of the natural wonders of the solar system. Named after Mariner 9 spacecraft that found it in 1972, Valles Marineris is a gigantic canyon system stretching across the rocky surface of Mars. It goes across one fifth of the planets surface!

Valles Marineris is really big! The nearest estimate is about 4000 km (2500 miles) long and 7 km (4 miles) deep at the deepest point. To give you and idea of how big that is, the 2nd biggest canyon on Earth (The Grand Canyon) is about 800 km (500 miles) long and 1.6km (1 mile) deep. That is almost seven times the length and height!

Valles Marineris probably has a lot of secrets that we haven't discovered. This is because only 5% of Valles Marineris has been explored, although we have found lots of stunning things and taken lots of interesting images. For example, FREND (Fine-Resolution Epithermal Neutron Detector) was a probe that launched off of the trace gas orbiter and went to a specific location to do work, and it found hydrogen, which could mean a chance of water being nearby.

You may be wondering, how did this huge canyon form, or what formed it? Well, whatever it was, it was definitely not dynamite. The most popular theory is rivers. Scientists are almost 100% sure about this, because the channeling in the rock matches most river banks and dried up lakes on Earth and there still is a chance that there could be water under the surface in the shadows.

I hope you enjoyed reading about Valles Marineris! Make sure to like this blog and subscribe to my youtube channel.

Until next time, Give Me Space!

Henry.