The surface of the planet Mars and the colossal size of its great canyon, the Valles Marineris

Within the Solar System we could say that Mars is like the little brother of planet Earth and an ideal destination to explore.

Mimas, the satellite of Saturn that has a curious resemblance to the Death Star
A tour of the surface of Pluto and the reason why it stopped being a planet

Mars has a diameter of 6,794 kilometers, 53% the diameter of Earth. Its days are very similar, 24.6 hours long, but its year lasts 687 Earth days. Mars has two small moons, Phobos and Deimos, which are irregular in shape. The planet has a thin atmosphere and its volcanoes (some of which are the largest shield volcanoes in the solar system) are inactive.

The most striking feature on the surface of Mars is Valles Marineris (Sailor's Valley in Latin), named after NASA's Mariner 9 spacecraft, launched in 1971 and which explored this area of ​​the planet. Valles Marineris is the largest known canyon in the entire Solar System, measuring more than 4,000 kilometres in length, some 200 kilometres wide and up to 7 kilometres deep.

Compared to Valles Marinensis, the Grand Canyon of Colorado is tiny, measuring 446 kilometers long, with a maximum width of 29 kilometers and a maximum depth of 800 meters.

The following image, published by NASA, can give us an idea of ​​the size of Valles Marineris compared to the United States, based on an image captured by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO).

If you want to see more beautiful images of this planet, V101 Space published an interesting video yesterday with real high-resolution photos of the surface of Mars and reviewing the history of space exploration of this world so close to ours:

---

Photos: NASA.