¿ Astronomy Picture of the Day [1]Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2020 May 24 [2]See Explanation. Clicking on the picture will download the highest resolution version available. Valles Marineris: The Grand Canyon of Mars Image Credit: [3]NASA, [4]USGS, [5]Viking Project Explanation: The largest canyon in the [6]Solar System cuts a wide swath across the face of [7]Mars. Named [8]Valles Marineris, the grand valley extends over 3,000 kilometers long, spans as much as 600 kilometers across, and delves as much as 8 kilometers deep. By comparison, the [9]Earth's Grand Canyon in Arizona, USA is 800 kilometers long, 30 kilometers across, and 1.8 kilometers deep. The origin of the [10]Valles Marineris remains unknown, although a leading hypothesis holds that it started as a [11]crack billions of years ago as the planet cooled. Several geologic processes have been identified in [12]the canyon. The [13]featured mosaic was [14]created from over 100 images of [15]Mars taken by [16]Viking Orbiters in the 1970s. Tomorrow's picture: interstellar monster __________________________________________________________________ [17]< | [18]Archive | [19]Submissions | [20]Index | [21]Search | [22]Calendar | [23]RSS | [24]Education | [25]About APOD | [26]Discuss | [27]> __________________________________________________________________ Authors & editors: [28]Robert Nemiroff ([29]MTU) & [30]Jerry Bonnell ([31]UMCP) NASA Official: Phillip Newman [32]Specific rights apply. [33]NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices A service of: [34]ASD at [35]NASA / [36]GSFC & [37]Michigan Tech. U. References 1. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html 2. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2005/marsglobe_viking_1552.jpg 3. https://www.nasa.gov/ 4. https://www.usgs.gov/ 5. https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/viking.html 6. https://space.jpl.nasa.gov/ 7. https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/mars/overview/ 8. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=crsqzZNUXsY 9. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Canyon 10. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valles_Marineris 11. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap980310.html 12. https://mars.nasa.gov/gallery/atlas/valles-marineris.html 13. http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/photo_gallery/photogallery-mars.html 14. http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/photo_gallery/caption/marsglobe1.txt 15. http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/allaboutmars/facts/ 16. http://pds.jpl.nasa.gov/planets/welcome/viking.htm 17. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap200523.html 18. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html 19. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/apsubmit2015.html 20. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/aptree.html 21. https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/apod/apod_search 22. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/calendar/allyears.html 23. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod.rss 24. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/edlinks.html 25. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html 26. http://asterisk.apod.com/discuss_apod.php?date=200524 27. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap200525.html 28. http://www.phy.mtu.edu/faculty/Nemiroff.html 29. http://www.phy.mtu.edu/ 30. https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/htmltest/jbonnell/www/bonnell.html 31. http://www.astro.umd.edu/ 32. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html#srapply 33. https://www.nasa.gov/about/highlights/HP_Privacy.html 34. https://astrophysics.gsfc.nasa.gov/ 35. https://www.nasa.gov/ 36. https://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/ 37. http://www.mtu.edu/