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A grand chasm, part of a canyon system that could stretch almost across the entire United States on Earth, bites into the surface of Mars in this image taken by the European Space Agency (ESA) spacecraft Mars Express.
Littered with impact craters, angular hills and ambiguous channels once used for drainage, the image shows a three-dimensional view of Eos Chasma in the southern region of the Valles Marineris, the Grand Canyon of Mars.
Though Mars Express snapped the image in June using its High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC), it was released this week.
Shown here is Eos Chasma, just part of the Valles Marineris canyon system that cuts 2,485 miles (about 4,000 kilometers) across the face of Mars. The height difference between the surrounding plains of Eos Chasma and its smooth valley floor is about 16,404 feet (5,000 meters). In this three-dimensional view of the area height is exaggerated by a factor of four.
Researchers were able to build the 3D perspective of Eos Chasma using a digital terrain model derived from the twin stereo channels of the HRSC. The reference image for this perspective was taken during the 533rd orbit of Mars Express, which centered its camera at longitude 322˚ east and latitude 11˚ south on the red planet.
-- SPACE.com
Credits: ESA/DLR/FU Berlin (G. Neukum)
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