The metallic snow-capped mountains of Venus.
Yup, it rains metal on Venus, producing mountain caps made of heavy metals.
Mountains and buried ice on Mars.
New images from the high-resolution stereo camera on ESA’s Mars Express orbiter allow a closer inspection [of the Phlegra Montes mountain range] and show that almost every mountain is surrounded by ‘lobate debris aprons’ – curved features typically observed around plateaus and mountains at these latitudes. Previous studies have shown that this material appears to have moved down the mountain slopes over time, and looks similar to the debris found covering glaciers here on Earth.
The Dawn scientists have released another spectacular image of the south polar mountain on Vesta whose relative size is three times that of Mount Everest. More information about the image can be found here. From the caption:
The peak of Vesta’s south pole mountain, seen in the center of the image, rises about 13 miles (22 kilometers) above the average height of the surrounding terrain. Another impressive structure is a large scarp, a cliff with a steep slope, on the right side of this image. The scarp bounds part of the south polar depression, and the Dawn team’s scientists believe features around its base are probably the result of landslides.
It appears the light gravity on Vesta allows for the formation of extreme topology.
