The images combine digital terrain models and color channels from the high-resolution stereo camera on ESA’s Mars Express spacecraft. The sharp, breathtaking images focus on two moats, the lus and the Tithonium Chasmata (in this context, the moats are also called the chasm). The two chasms are part of the Valles Marineris canyon system on Mars. And together, they are the largest canyon in the solar system. Photo: ESA/DLR/FU Berlin Looking at lus and Tithonium Chasmata without something for scale can be deceiving. The sizes played are actually titans. Valles Marineris is the largest canyon in our solar system at 4,000 km long, 200 km wide and 7 km deep in places. This is deep enough to swallow the largest mountain in the Alps and larger than the Grand Canyon by several orders of magnitude . In fact, it confronts the United States itself in some dimensions. Image: NASA ESA has some analysis of the images on their website. The photographs include evidence of plate tectonic activity, erosion, landslides and volcanic sand. A color topographic map of lus and Tithonium Chasmata. Photo: ESA/DLR/FU Berlin
A story of discovery
It’s not the first time Mars Express has delivered the goods. In 2018, the spacecraft famously discovered evidence of liquid water hiding beneath the polar ice caps of Mars. Mars Express has been orbiting Mars since 2003.
