Comments on: The Deepest Canyon on Mars in Stunning High-Definition: New Images from the HRSC

By: sammy

sammy — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 23:46:33 +0000

Keep up the great work!

By: sammy

sammy — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 23:43:33 +0000

Astounding, wonderful images!

By: UK Dave

UK Dave — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 11:37:25 +0000

I'm well and trruly gobsmacked! These images are amazing, breathtaking!
Thanks for all the knowledgable comments chaps!

By: B29

B29 — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 11:57:33 +0000

My word it's beautiful!

By: 192.168.0.1

192.168.0.1 — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 11:50:05 +0000

Stunning, stunning, stunning!

By: Allan

Allan — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 10:21:31 +0000

Thanks Ian for not taking my jibe re MOTE too seriously……………….keep up the great work

By: mystic.smeg

mystic.smeg — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 06:56:44 +0000

tambo

It probably is volcanic.

I'd guess the only way a geological feature like this could be formed is through a smack from a large asteroid, there would be plenty of energy (heat) to melt/scorch the rock.

By: mystic.smeg

mystic.smeg — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 06:46:49 +0000

Wow! – Can you imagine the next Mars fps (first person shooter) computer game to be released, Doom 10.0?

I need a bigger monitor!

By: INFINITY

INFINITY — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 23:26:31 +0000

IT IS SAD THAT WE HAVE SPENT BILLIONS IN FIGHTING EACH OTHER INSTEAD OF COMPLETING OUR DESTINY TO EXPLORE OTHER WORLDS AND GO WHERE MAN HAS NEVER BEEN BEFORE. INSTEAD OF FIGHTING OVER SCRAPS WE SHOULD BE EXPLORING THE INCREDIBLE BOUNTY THE UNIVERSE HAS TO OFFER MANKIND. WHERE IS THE SPIRIT OF EXPLORATION THAT OUR ANCESTORS HAD?

By: stumpy

stumpy — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 16:55:04 +0000

Hey now, it's not April Fools Day yet. Too bad they didn't catch the deepest point just below the range of the second picture.

By: Christopher Kupris

Christopher Kupris — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 15:26:25 +0000

A wonderful place to see and visit, but we should take care what we do in there. I often think about future life on Mars. We should take care and keep the Red Planet as green as possible.

By: Peter

Peter — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 15:23:18 +0000

Just after the Spirit and Opportunity 3D pictures started coming out, JPL published instructions on how to make your own 3D images:

marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/spotlight/3d01.html

If you have any experience with photoshop, you can make really cool pictures in only a couple of minutes. You think your brain hurts when you first put on the 3D glasses? See what happens as you alter the depth of the image – ouch!

By: Dave

Dave — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 14:03:04 +0000

Now THAT is where a rover needs to go! We've got to stop sending rovers to relatively boring places just because they offer safe landing. The bottom of a chasm like this is the place to find something, not the middle of a basically barron desert. We have a lot of smart creative people who can certainly figure out a way to get a robotic mission safely in there or in Valles Marineris. Higher temps, higher pressure, deeper and likely more "moist" . . . what are we wating for?

By: Steve

Steve — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 13:31:17 +0000

I think I will sue for taking such nice pictures of Mars. It may jeopardize our relationship with the Martians.

Oh wait, I'm not from Hawaii.

By: tambo

tambo — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 13:01:06 +0000

Too wild to believe. I have a ? What is the black smooth looking stuff. looks like volcanic glass or something blew up in there and spread it around. Even @ the high elevations. Crazy

By: Patrick

Patrick — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 12:17:07 +0000

Wonder why very few if any craters in the chasm and flat-top mountain vs the plains?

By: AC

AC — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 11:41:28 +0000

Looks like fossilized bandersnatch to me.

By: Ian O'Neill

Ian O'Neill — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 11:34:07 +0000

Totally right, mote -> moat. Was typing too quick… corrected.

Thanks, Ian

By: john

john — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 10:17:59 +0000

Please learn the difference between a moat which surrounds a castle and a mote which is very small like a period.

By: Theo

Theo — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 10:05:36 +0000

I am glad to see ESA is releasing some really astounding stuff. I have complained to several ESA administers about the long delay in releasing pictures and info. but all I get is "policy". NASA/JPL is most generous in releasing anything really new within day's but ESA takes month's. Don't get me wrong for I am most appreciative of any information/items put out for revue but I feel it could come a little quicker through the "pipeline".

By: Chris Coles

Chris Coles — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 10:03:42 +0000

8 Kms is 26,000 feet deep. Adiabatic lapse rate means the atmosphere at the bottom will be some 70 degrees Centigrade warmer than at the rim. Add to that the difference in colour between the two sides, the sunlit side being white must be caused by the heating effects of the sun on that side. That in turn will displace a large atmospheric movement up that sunlit side, as it does on any mountain here on earth with many related effects. For these reasons alone, this must the bottom of the chasm the best possible location for a manned mission to Mars. If we are to find any sign of life on Mars, this must surely be the most likely location?

Again, look at the upper left rim where there is a object that has "sloughed" into the channel leading to the rim edge. Is that a meteorite that, having been just under the surface, is now about to slide into the chasm?

Again, the impact craters on the left have still got signs of the displacement of the surface surrounding the crater, but the ones on the right have lost all that displacement. Is the surface a mixture of ice and soil?

Such photographs are a wonderful way to define future observational missions.

By: Al

Al — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 09:14:49 +0000

Just the place to look for evidence of past life?

By: Al Michael

Al Michael — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 08:32:18 +0000

Stunning is the word that comes to mind when looking at these photos.
I also enjoyed the comments posted by ScepticTim these insight to the possible origins of the structures is very informative.

By: Allan

Allan — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 07:57:49 +0000

No argument ,the pictures are out of this world, but please enlighten me and explain what on Earth (or Mars this time around ) exactly is a "MOTE" as I can only make out a feature that I would call a "MOAT" similar to barriers that were placed around medieval castles and similar structures.
Please keep the excellent art works coming.

By: ScepticTim

ScepticTim — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 04:05:05 +0000

It would be interesting to see spectrographic or radiometric data of some type across this structure. The apparent smooth shape of the central mountain suggests a batholithic like origin to me – i.e that it was formed by the upwelling of interior magma that did not reach the surface and was exposed by later fracturing and erosion of the overlying material. Erosion appears to have affected the lighter coloured country rock surrounding the Chasma differently than the darker central 'mountain'. I wonder if that 'mountain' is composed of a harder 'basaltic like' material. Perhaps some future geologist will find a bit of the Martian mantle here!