Swirls and mesas in Valles Marineris
Click for full image. For the original of the inset go here.
Cool image time! The picture to the right, rotated and cropped to post here, was taken on June 13, 2022 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). It shows what the scientists label as “fractures in West Candor Chasma,” one of the side canyons that form Mars’ gigantic Valles Marineris, the largest canyon system known in the solar system.
To my eye, I don’t see fractures as much as swirling and curving outcrop ridges, as if the twisted layering here is so steeply tilted so that it is almost vertical, with the more resistant edges sticking up out of the dust and dunes. The color corrected inset zooms in on some of these swirls, though this better view hardly clarifies things. Note how the upper curves seem to suddenly cut off, almost as if someone had sliced them with a knife. Don’t ask me to explain.
The overview map shows us where this spot is within Valles Marineris.
The black cross at the western end of Candor Chasma on the overview map above marks the location of this rough and strange terrain on the floor of the canyon. In this part of Valles Marineris the canyon is not so deep. The floor only sits about 10,000 feet below the rim (which is still twice as deep as the Grand Canyon on Earth).
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
Click for full image. For the original of the inset go here.
Cool image time! The picture to the right, rotated and cropped to post here, was taken on June 13, 2022 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). It shows what the scientists label as “fractures in West Candor Chasma,” one of the side canyons that form Mars’ gigantic Valles Marineris, the largest canyon system known in the solar system.
To my eye, I don’t see fractures as much as swirling and curving outcrop ridges, as if the twisted layering here is so steeply tilted so that it is almost vertical, with the more resistant edges sticking up out of the dust and dunes. The color corrected inset zooms in on some of these swirls, though this better view hardly clarifies things. Note how the upper curves seem to suddenly cut off, almost as if someone had sliced them with a knife. Don’t ask me to explain.
The overview map shows us where this spot is within Valles Marineris.
The black cross at the western end of Candor Chasma on the overview map above marks the location of this rough and strange terrain on the floor of the canyon. In this part of Valles Marineris the canyon is not so deep. The floor only sits about 10,000 feet below the rim (which is still twice as deep as the Grand Canyon on Earth).
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
Nazca lines. It’s aliens.