Fly Through a Canyon on Mars, Thanks to Mars Express

Take a ride through a Hebes Chasma, a canyon just north of the largest canyon on Mars – and the Solar System — Valles Marineris. The video provides an awesome view, but this is not a wild ride with Luke Skywalker through trenches of the Death Star …. it’s more like a tourist pleasure cruise which provides picturesque views of this 8 km-deep canyon.

ESA provides all the tourist info of what you are seeing:

The movie glides over impact craters pockmarking the plains separating the troughs, down cliff faces scarred by landslides, and along the rough valley floor.

In some parts of the valley Mars Express has detected water-bearing minerals, suggesting that significant quantities of water may have once flowed here.

The formation of Hebes Chasma is likely connected to the nearby volcanic Tharsis region, home to the planet’s vast Olympus Mons volcano.

During periods of intense volcanism the whole region stretched upwards, causing tremendous stress in the crust further way. Unable to withstand the strain, the crust ripped open, collapsing into the chasms found in and around Valles Marineris.

Funny, I was just thinking over the weekend it had been a long time since I’d seen a flythough video from Mars! If you need more, the HiRISE folks have a nice collection of flythrough videos here.

Source: ESA