Science & Exploration
03/07/2024
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An enchanting characteristic takes centre stage on this new picture from ESA’s Mars Categorical: a darkish, uneven scar slicing by way of marbled floor on the foot of an enormous volcano.
A broader view of Aganippe Fossa
This scar, often known as Aganippe Fossa, is a patchy, roughly 600-km-long characteristic often known as a ‘graben’: a ditch-like groove with steep partitions on both aspect.Aganippe Fossa cuts throughout the decrease flank of one in all Mars’s largest volcanoes, Arsia Mons. Mars Categorical commonly observes Arsia Mons and its close by companions within the area of Tharsis, the place a number of of Mars’s behemoth volcanoes are discovered. This consists of Olympus Mons, the tallest volcano within the Photo voltaic System (seen within the context map related to this new picture, as is Arsia Mons).Arsia Mons itself measures 435 km in diameter and rises greater than 9 km above the encircling plains. For context, the very best dormant volcano on Earth, Ojos del Salado on the Argentina-Chile border, tops out at beneath 7 km.Seeping lavaWe’re nonetheless uncertain of how and when Aganippe Fossa got here to be, but it surely appears doubtless that it was shaped as magma rising beneath the colossal mass of the Tharsis volcanoes brought on Mars’s crust to stretch and crack.
A snaking scar on Mars. Click on on the picture to zoom in and discover in additional element.
On this view, Mars Categorical’s Excessive Decision Stereo Digicam (HRSC) captures two totally different sorts of terrain: so-called hummocky terrain, which includes many irregularly formed mounds and valleys all clustered collectively, and lobate terrain, which is shaped of gently sloping cliffs and rocky particles.
Topography of Aganippe Fossa
These terrains are attribute of Arsia Mons’s ring-shaped ‘aureole’, a 100 000-square-kilometre disc across the base of the volcano, probably related to historical glaciers. Intriguingly, this aureole has solely constructed up on the northwestern flank of the volcano, doubtless resulting from prevailing winds from the wrong way controlling the place ice settled over time.Windblown mud and sand have additionally formed this patch of Mars, creating attention-grabbing zebra-like patterns to the fitting of the body as darker materials is deposited on lighter floor (or vice versa!). The floor right here additionally exhibits proof of lava flows, relationship from when the volcano was energetic.
Exploring Mars
Mars Categorical has been orbiting the Crimson Planet since 2003. It’s imaging Mars’s floor, mapping its minerals, figuring out the composition and circulation of its tenuous ambiance, probing beneath its crust, and exploring how numerous phenomena work together within the martian surroundings.The spacecraft’s HRSC, liable for these photographs, has revealed a lot about Mars’s numerous floor up to now 20 years. Its photographs present all the pieces from wind-sculpted ridges and grooves to sinkholes on the flanks of colossal volcanoes to affect craters, tectonic faults, river channels and historical lava swimming pools. The mission has been immensely productive over its lifetime, making a far fuller and extra correct understanding of our planetary neighbour than ever earlier than.
Aganippe Fossa in 3D
The Mars Categorical Excessive Decision Stereo Digicam (HRSC) was developed and is operated by the German Aerospace Middle (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR).
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