Mars Gallery

Valles Marineris, Mars

Valles Marineris, Mars. Artwork of Valles Marineris canyon system on Mars as the sun rises. The Valles Marineris is over 4000 kilometres (km) long, up to 200 km wide and up to 7 km deep, dwarfing the Grand Canyon of Arizona, USA. The canyons are found on the southeastern edge of the Tharsis Bulge and were originally created by faulting during the formation of Tharsis. The canyons have been further worn down by water and wind erosion. Finally, slumping has helped widen the canyon so that the bottom is visible from space

© DETLEV VAN RAVENSWAAY/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY

Artwork of the early Earth-Moon system

Artwork of the young Earth-Moon system. The Earth had recently formed when it was struck by a protoplanet ?" called Theia ?" roughly three times the size of Mars. Debris from the impact went into orbit, while the cores of the two planets merged. Within weeks of the event, the debris formed a Saturn-like ring around the Earth. Later collisions in this ring led to the formation of the Moon, probably within just a few thousand years. Initially the Earth and Moon were much closer together than they are now, and spinning more quickly

© MARK GARLICK/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY

Muonionalusta meteorite, micrograph

Dark field micrograph of the surfcace of the iron fine octahedrite type meteorite Muonionalusta, found in Sweden. The Widmanstatten pattern of lines on the newly-cut surface are produced by the edges of crystals in the meteorite. The pattern was formed about 1 billion years ago when the iron mass solidified in one of several minor planets between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. These planets have since been disrupted to form the asteroid belt. The fragments resulting from collisions between asteroids are deflected into orbits that cross the path of the Earth. Analysis of meteorites can provide information on the composition of the early solar system. Object size of this close-up: approx. 2, 5 mm

© PASIEKA/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY