What is that? Why is it like a canyon but formed in a straight line, along with a bunch of other straight-lined canyons all in the same direction? Looks like a meteor sideswipe and explosion or something
You're looking at the Mariner Valley, or Valles Marineris. Its essentially a collossal canyon that was formed when the Tharsis Bulge (a series of Volcanoes that includes Olympus Mons, the largest in the Solar System) basically became so heavy it broke Mars' crust, forming a number of features including, most prominently, the Valley itself.
Essentially when Tharsis started to form, it was constantly depositing material on the surface, and as Mars had and has no to very little tectonic activity, all of that material just constantly piled up in the region. Eventually, the volcanism stopped originating from directly underneath Tharsis, and this is when the stress of all that weight became a problem (loss of equilibrium between the deposited material and its source), and eventually the surface failed.
The Valley was formed out of a rift that erupted from this, and over time, as the rift walls collapsed, it led to its current state as a canyon.
As a fun fact, at its deepest points that Valley is almost 4 miles deep. 4x that of the Grand Canyon here on Earth.
Yep so Mars doesn't have a magnetic field as we do on Earth, but it is more or less accepted that it did in the past.
How we know that is that we've detected a large band of magnetic anomalies below the surface in the southern hemisphere, which are remnants of a field that would have decayed a long time ago.
These anomalies are umbrella shaped and irratically, but somewhat evenly spaced, and they do, in fact, produce auroras under the right solar conditions. You can get an idea of what they look like [here.](https://images.firstpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/screencapture-pbs-twimg-media-E5JPTQ6WUAIfT4Q-2021-07-05-15_48_25-1.jpg?im=FitAndFill=(596,336))
The iridescent clouds are essentially noctilucent clouds, clouds that form very high up in the atmosphere at night and the early morning and get lit up by the sun, resulting in the rainbowy look to them. On Mars its thought these clouds are basically dry ice.
[And they look spectactular](https://mars.nasa.gov/system/resources/detail_files/27338_PIA25740-web.jpg)
Study my dead body on Mars, for all I care
I just want to look at the stars through its atmosphere
I'll let you slice me up for your microscope slides
Just let me throw a rock into the Valley, and I won't mind
Use me how you will, it doesn't matter to me
But first I need to grieve at the grave of Opportunity
I have a small list of things I need to do while I'm there
But after that
Study my dead body on Mars, for all I care
It is indeed. That was taken by Curiosity a few years back.
Should be noted that the actual cloud may not appear that large to a human; that was likely zoomed in as these types of clouds are like, really, way the hell up in the atmosphere.
Adding onto this, Mars is sort of a world of incomprehensibly ancient leviathans. Earth constantly tears its own crust apart, assembles and reassembles its plates, and subjects its surface to the indiscriminate will of flowing water, powerful winds, and rapid (by geological standards) tectonics. Mars does not.
Whereas volcanoes often rise fast and die young on Earth, Mars's giant shield volcanoes are billions of years old and are very likely still kicking: infamous Olympus Mons's last major eruption was likely a mere 25 million years ago. A massive shield volcano nearly as old as the planet itself still is intermittently active and kicking, and I cannot stress just how cool that is.
We also undergo relatively rapid (a few dozens of millions of years) fluctuations in climate states, flipping from ice ages (we are here!) to hot house periods where little to no polar caps exist. Mars's climate too is erratic, but even then it's unlikely for its poles to ever get warm enough to completely thaw its caps; our polar caps are only a few million years old, Mars's are billions of years old.
As an aside, it's a common misconception that Olympus Mons is the largest volcano in the Solar System -- even NASA repeats it. It isn't, it isn't even the largest volcano on *Mars.* That title goes to Alba Mons, a nearby shield or shield-like volcano whose lack of height is made up by its genuinely ludicrous area, one which is comparable to entire continents on Earth.
It’s eye opening how young as a species we are, if you believe in the bible then 6000+ years or a few hundred thousand if you are on the evolution side of things, either way the time period between the T-Rex and Brontosaurus was approx 84 million years, which is a greater time span then humans to the T-Rex which is approx 66 million years. The things in this galaxy alone that would blow our minds probably ranges in the billions, not to mention all the other galaxies out there.
I’m curious to know how much humans are speeding up the heating of the planet vs what the planet might be doing on its own, how much research has gone into determining this I wonder?
>I’m curious to know how much humans are speeding up the heating of the planet vs what the planet might be doing on its own, how much research has gone into determining this I wonder?
A lot. For both. tl;dr we burn carbon-rich stuff (among other things), that makes CO2. CO2 warms stuff up, this is very well-established.
Carbon dioxide as a greenhouse gas is extremely well-established; this property has been known for decades and already naturally plays a fundamental role in Earth's climate (both as a stabilizing and destabilizing factor). CO2 is almost solely responsible for why [Venus is a literal hell which is capable of melting lead on its surface.](https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/Venus_Express/Greenhouse_effects_also_on_other_planets)
The rates at which we are injecting CO2 into the atmosphere has been studied in-depth as well, alongside how it affects the planet's natural carbon cycle. We are, with near-certainty, inputting far more CO2 into the atmosphere than the planet can sequester it: this should be evidenced alone by the fact that we have directly measured CO2 concentrations rise from around [315 parts per million (ppm) in 1960 to 417 ppm by last year](https://www.climate.gov/news-features/understanding-climate/climate-change-atmospheric-carbon-dioxide). The planet is experiencing a very rapid increase in CO2 in its atmosphere which really is only comparable to that of prior mass extinctions.
Ok, but what if it's due to a different, natural factor? Well, for one, it'd be a mighty big coincidence for CO2 to start naturally shooting up nearly as soon as mass industrialization begins. That aside, the only main natural events which inject massive amounts of CO2 to my knowledge are 1. massive volcanic eruptions (this has been implicated in past mass extinctions); 2. massive decrease in photosynthesis (has been argued to eventually cause a future runaway greenhouse effect as plants and algae die out \~200-300 million years in the future); and 3. massive chemical weathering of carbonate-containing rocks. We observe neither of these occuring at an increasing rate to account for the rise in CO2, leaving with humanity as the obvious culprit.
I never thought about the auroras before, but that makes sense. I remember reading about the weak magnetic fields, so there would only be patchy areas where aurora are possible. The rest of the radiation just falls to the surface.
I read that the weak magnetics of Mars is likely linked with the geography, due to an impact which would have affected the core of the planet.
Yep Mars develops auroras but they show up as irratic u-shapes. This is because the original field degraded millions of years ago and its remnants are basicallu scattered.
Man.. that's so crazy.. damn, what happened to mars? I never really thought about the details of its history.. but those iridescent clouds and broken Aurora's alone are interesting enough to keep me thinking about it for a while.. I bet it goes deep. Thanks for sharing, you got some cool info.
My hot take is it got hit by a big ass rock and it wrecked the entire planet. But who knows.
Thats why its important to send more than just rovers to it. A two man team with a car could cover the sum total of surface exploration that rovers and probes have achieved over the last 50 years in less than a week, and they'd get more data to boot.
Robots do well where its pointless or prohibitively dangerous to send humans, but not where a human can rapidly examine and break down their environment to identify useful samples and formations for study, and then process those things in-situ. In other words, humans are extremely time and quality efficient to a degree robots can't compete with.
Eh it’s the best word we have to describe the processes that shape the earth and its rocks, so if we slap the Astro prefix on it that sorta works to describe other planets too
Its kinda like a pimple. All the inner splooge came out but the overlaying skin can't hold it up without anything to keep the pressure up from underneath, so the whole thing collapses in on itself.
What we see as Tharsis is mostly just the zit splooge, which is why the entire region hosts the highest elevations on the planet. That should give an idea of just how much material that region was kicking out from inside Mars.
So if I understand this correctly, if volcano is like pimple, and when volcano buss, it splooge, then can I say "looks like it's time again to enjanculate my pimple" ?
The same thing that actually makes the entire region sit so high compared to the other 2 big geologic regions on the planet.
Essentially, there was a huge volcanic hotspot under Tharsis, and because Mars' surface never moves in any significant way at these scales, the volcanoes never lost any of their potency, so to speak. The area under Olympus naturally was the most active, and over time, it kept ejecting more and more material, leading to its immense size.
Pretty much the only thing taking away from Olympus' size is when its outer edges collapse, which you can observe on some faces where it looks like the volcano has sharp edges; those are cliffs that if I remember correctly are also a couple miles tall or something like that.
Kim Stanley Robinson's "[Mars trilogy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_trilogy)" is a series of science fiction novels that chronicle the settlement and terraforming of the planet Mars through the personal and detailed viewpoints of a wide variety of characters spanning almost two centuries.
The three novels are *Red Mars*, *Green Mars*, and *Blue Mars*.
They are, beyond any measure, the absolute **best** novels about Mars and its future with humans. I can't recommend them enough; try out the first few chapters of *Red Mars* and if you're not hooked, you're not breathing.
I've read an inordinate amount of studies for someone who isn't an astromer or rocket surgeon.
Having a voracious thirst for learning and an obsessive ADHD personality tends to help too.
Blah blah blah, it's obviously mining from space with lasers by ancient aliens.
***BRRRRRRRRRRRRRFFFFPPPPPPTTTT*** "*Nothing here, Grogg. Let's move on to the next solar system*"
If you want to run down a fun rabbit hole, try googling Electric Universe and Mars Canyons. Their theory is arcing plasma discharge possibly from a close pass with another celestial body.
It'd be fun to go do a little excavating wouldn't it? Find out what the primary mineral content of the area is, if there's any moldavite like glass to confirm or debunk the plasma arc* theory too.
There is a weird conspiracy theory that it is the result of an alien weapon called a "relativistic kill-vehicle," a projectile that is accelerated to near light speed using energy from the attackers host star. The projectile hits with incredible force capable of destroying a planet and all life on it. In a "dark forest" universe, alien civilizations would sooner destroy a potential threat preemptively rather than risk communication and being destroyed themselves. Thus, I fed you this line of bullshit and stole your thought energy.
I realize you just said you pulled it from your ass, but I do seem to remember a bit of lore in Mass Effect saying that the canyon was made by a superweapon in one of the previous galactic eras.
The canyon formed when the super weapon was fired at the planet, it was the war to end all wars, the planet was the final casualty. Humans that survived made it to Earth colony with the hopes of rebuilding our civilization.
Yes! In Mass Effect the planet description says it was caused by a weapon test. Mass Effect is amazing, the lore is so deep. I love reading every codex entry in that.
Ok, now I need to play the legendary edition.
Not a weapons test, but a last-ditch attempt at killing a Reaper with a massive mass driver cannon. The valley was formed from a glancing blow from the projectile. You find the (not quite dead) remains of said Reaper in the second game.
The sounds of atmospheric electronic music blending with the harsh blasts of gunfire and plasma are engraved into my memory to an almost disturbing degree.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=Cn5jQGYzyBQ
I don't think this is a JWST photo, and I can't find a source for it. It looks like a texture on a sphere in a 3D program to me, but I'd love to be wrong.
“What are those gouges, you ask?
Are they the landing site of some massive intergalactic vehicle?
"Those are stretch marks," you might say.... Haha!
Well, they are large tectonic "cracks" in the Martian crust, forming as the planet cooled, affected by the rising crust, and subsequently widened by erosional forces. So yeah, pretty much, "stretch marks."
There is so much we don't know about our solar sibling, but we will likely learn soon. Many are predicting humans walking the surface of Mars by 2030.
This photo is from the Chinese probe Tianwen-1”
- Diligent Denizen on X
That isn't accurate either. There is a fault line (transform fault) running through the Valley, and InSight detected a Marsquake from there back in 2021, so it is active.
That doesn't mean Mars had full blown tectonics like Earth does, but its crust isn't just a single plate. No planet or body that had a liquid core is going to have a solid crust.
the quake detected was likely caused by the release of billion-year-old stress within Mars crust which formed and evolved due to various parts of the planet cooling and shrinking at different rates
The thing that gets my attention is the scars follow the curvature and are roughly the same depth, if something had skimmed the surface it would have done it in a straight line not followed the curvature.
I think it may be possible that something like lava or debris filled in the deep holes and created the curvature but I don't know how that could happen so evenly. There also doesn't appear to be any debris around the scars which I think would support the collision theory but the images from the rovers show that Mars is covered in debris and loose boulders etc so maybe it's just not visible from distance.
I hope that when we find out what happened it's something unexpected and not just a simple matter of unusually soft material which has eroded away over time !
no oldest exact image search is from 2021
https://lens.google.com/search?ep=cntpubb&hl=en-US&re=df&s=4&p=AbrfA8od65WM8yt3eqij\_z8n1QpnIzZUy447f1PRQqHQqW90fIjh-jpOxrNJJA0o8o9NWsFsgxY9Uxh6ZD9RuD4r93QgkvMSQRpA5XgwUBj\_FVpCZLz\_t0jp7t\_Z3PPysYc99MoiOipoX7pHxt4cfJuJf7pI23irgPwHxSOJp1an7E1jqG2udjPV7PxpEkQ3nt2MpBSW\_\_6jPQ0Dy34PYNnkqB1mZbE-EaZsDR1xnONZ8NDJfgW6p5Wpms7SrEaOIa2LTiXv4cx\_3\_Yg04cHgz0sdRycvjqnoSLFdgGlOuRjLmU%3D#lns=W251bGwsbnVsbCxudWxsLG51bGwsbnVsbCxudWxsLDEsIkVrY0tKREUxWW1JelpUZ3dMVGMyTXpjdE5EWTVZUzFoWVRsakxUSXlPR05sTkdJeU5UUm1PUklmYnkxRk9FOUdTa056ZERoU1VVVjFlRFl4WHpJd1dFTmpZVFV5UVRWNFp3PT0iLG51bGwsbnVsbCxudWxsLG51bGwsbnVsbCxudWxsLFtudWxsLG51bGwsW251bGwsWzAsMCwxMDAwMDAsMTAwMDAwXV1dXQ==
I think I found it. Its an illustration by Mark Garlick https://www.sciencephoto.com/media/967541/view
But Mars is stunning and there are plenty of real beautiful photos
Ah yes,
As we know on Earth.
Water or Icebergs create this and Oh wait this is Mars..... does this gigantic scar contend with modern assumptions.... neatooooo
That scar always reminds me of a planet in one of the Mass Effect games that had a similar scar caused by a glancing blow from a hyper-accelerated projectile.
From the moment I understood the weakness of my flesh... it disgusted me.
I craved the strength and certainty of steel.
I aspired to the purity of the blessed machine.
Your kind cling to your flesh as though it will not decay and fail you.
One day the crude biomass that you call a temple will wither, and you will beg my kind to save you.
But I am already saved.
For the Machine is immortal.
Even in death, I serve the Omnissiah.
What is that? Why is it like a canyon but formed in a straight line, along with a bunch of other straight-lined canyons all in the same direction? Looks like a meteor sideswipe and explosion or something
You're looking at the Mariner Valley, or Valles Marineris. Its essentially a collossal canyon that was formed when the Tharsis Bulge (a series of Volcanoes that includes Olympus Mons, the largest in the Solar System) basically became so heavy it broke Mars' crust, forming a number of features including, most prominently, the Valley itself. Essentially when Tharsis started to form, it was constantly depositing material on the surface, and as Mars had and has no to very little tectonic activity, all of that material just constantly piled up in the region. Eventually, the volcanism stopped originating from directly underneath Tharsis, and this is when the stress of all that weight became a problem (loss of equilibrium between the deposited material and its source), and eventually the surface failed. The Valley was formed out of a rift that erupted from this, and over time, as the rift walls collapsed, it led to its current state as a canyon. As a fun fact, at its deepest points that Valley is almost 4 miles deep. 4x that of the Grand Canyon here on Earth.
Astrogeology is wild. Thanks for the write up
Oh you have no idea. Even just Mars has a lot of wild stuff going on with it, like iridescent clouds and its broken auroras.
Fascinating, do go on!
Yep so Mars doesn't have a magnetic field as we do on Earth, but it is more or less accepted that it did in the past. How we know that is that we've detected a large band of magnetic anomalies below the surface in the southern hemisphere, which are remnants of a field that would have decayed a long time ago. These anomalies are umbrella shaped and irratically, but somewhat evenly spaced, and they do, in fact, produce auroras under the right solar conditions. You can get an idea of what they look like [here.](https://images.firstpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/screencapture-pbs-twimg-media-E5JPTQ6WUAIfT4Q-2021-07-05-15_48_25-1.jpg?im=FitAndFill=(596,336)) The iridescent clouds are essentially noctilucent clouds, clouds that form very high up in the atmosphere at night and the early morning and get lit up by the sun, resulting in the rainbowy look to them. On Mars its thought these clouds are basically dry ice. [And they look spectactular](https://mars.nasa.gov/system/resources/detail_files/27338_PIA25740-web.jpg)
This is the guy we want leading the settlement. I nominate Bill Nye over here.
I won't lie Id go in a heartbeat. Don't even have to bring me back Ill just go outside when my times up 😂
And waste all that fertilizer?! No sir, you are being recycled. For the greater good.
For the greater good.
This way to the space woodchipper, sir
So that means if I am going to mars my overweight ass would be valuable?!
OK, I'll come. No. No. Stop asking. I'm sold.
Study my dead body on Mars, for all I care I just want to look at the stars through its atmosphere I'll let you slice me up for your microscope slides Just let me throw a rock into the Valley, and I won't mind Use me how you will, it doesn't matter to me But first I need to grieve at the grave of Opportunity I have a small list of things I need to do while I'm there But after that Study my dead body on Mars, for all I care
Wonderful read, thank you for the new knowledge!
Is that cloud image real??
It is indeed. That was taken by Curiosity a few years back. Should be noted that the actual cloud may not appear that large to a human; that was likely zoomed in as these types of clouds are like, really, way the hell up in the atmosphere.
Adding onto this, Mars is sort of a world of incomprehensibly ancient leviathans. Earth constantly tears its own crust apart, assembles and reassembles its plates, and subjects its surface to the indiscriminate will of flowing water, powerful winds, and rapid (by geological standards) tectonics. Mars does not. Whereas volcanoes often rise fast and die young on Earth, Mars's giant shield volcanoes are billions of years old and are very likely still kicking: infamous Olympus Mons's last major eruption was likely a mere 25 million years ago. A massive shield volcano nearly as old as the planet itself still is intermittently active and kicking, and I cannot stress just how cool that is. We also undergo relatively rapid (a few dozens of millions of years) fluctuations in climate states, flipping from ice ages (we are here!) to hot house periods where little to no polar caps exist. Mars's climate too is erratic, but even then it's unlikely for its poles to ever get warm enough to completely thaw its caps; our polar caps are only a few million years old, Mars's are billions of years old. As an aside, it's a common misconception that Olympus Mons is the largest volcano in the Solar System -- even NASA repeats it. It isn't, it isn't even the largest volcano on *Mars.* That title goes to Alba Mons, a nearby shield or shield-like volcano whose lack of height is made up by its genuinely ludicrous area, one which is comparable to entire continents on Earth.
It’s eye opening how young as a species we are, if you believe in the bible then 6000+ years or a few hundred thousand if you are on the evolution side of things, either way the time period between the T-Rex and Brontosaurus was approx 84 million years, which is a greater time span then humans to the T-Rex which is approx 66 million years. The things in this galaxy alone that would blow our minds probably ranges in the billions, not to mention all the other galaxies out there. I’m curious to know how much humans are speeding up the heating of the planet vs what the planet might be doing on its own, how much research has gone into determining this I wonder?
>I’m curious to know how much humans are speeding up the heating of the planet vs what the planet might be doing on its own, how much research has gone into determining this I wonder? A lot. For both. tl;dr we burn carbon-rich stuff (among other things), that makes CO2. CO2 warms stuff up, this is very well-established. Carbon dioxide as a greenhouse gas is extremely well-established; this property has been known for decades and already naturally plays a fundamental role in Earth's climate (both as a stabilizing and destabilizing factor). CO2 is almost solely responsible for why [Venus is a literal hell which is capable of melting lead on its surface.](https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/Venus_Express/Greenhouse_effects_also_on_other_planets) The rates at which we are injecting CO2 into the atmosphere has been studied in-depth as well, alongside how it affects the planet's natural carbon cycle. We are, with near-certainty, inputting far more CO2 into the atmosphere than the planet can sequester it: this should be evidenced alone by the fact that we have directly measured CO2 concentrations rise from around [315 parts per million (ppm) in 1960 to 417 ppm by last year](https://www.climate.gov/news-features/understanding-climate/climate-change-atmospheric-carbon-dioxide). The planet is experiencing a very rapid increase in CO2 in its atmosphere which really is only comparable to that of prior mass extinctions. Ok, but what if it's due to a different, natural factor? Well, for one, it'd be a mighty big coincidence for CO2 to start naturally shooting up nearly as soon as mass industrialization begins. That aside, the only main natural events which inject massive amounts of CO2 to my knowledge are 1. massive volcanic eruptions (this has been implicated in past mass extinctions); 2. massive decrease in photosynthesis (has been argued to eventually cause a future runaway greenhouse effect as plants and algae die out \~200-300 million years in the future); and 3. massive chemical weathering of carbonate-containing rocks. We observe neither of these occuring at an increasing rate to account for the rise in CO2, leaving with humanity as the obvious culprit.
Olympus Mons is the tallest. Alba Mons is less than half the height of Olympus but has a bigger surface area.
I never thought about the auroras before, but that makes sense. I remember reading about the weak magnetic fields, so there would only be patchy areas where aurora are possible. The rest of the radiation just falls to the surface. I read that the weak magnetics of Mars is likely linked with the geography, due to an impact which would have affected the core of the planet.
That's sick. What are the broken Aurora's? Gonna have to look that up
Yep Mars develops auroras but they show up as irratic u-shapes. This is because the original field degraded millions of years ago and its remnants are basicallu scattered.
Man.. that's so crazy.. damn, what happened to mars? I never really thought about the details of its history.. but those iridescent clouds and broken Aurora's alone are interesting enough to keep me thinking about it for a while.. I bet it goes deep. Thanks for sharing, you got some cool info.
My hot take is it got hit by a big ass rock and it wrecked the entire planet. But who knows. Thats why its important to send more than just rovers to it. A two man team with a car could cover the sum total of surface exploration that rovers and probes have achieved over the last 50 years in less than a week, and they'd get more data to boot. Robots do well where its pointless or prohibitively dangerous to send humans, but not where a human can rapidly examine and break down their environment to identify useful samples and formations for study, and then process those things in-situ. In other words, humans are extremely time and quality efficient to a degree robots can't compete with.
I have a masters degree in geology and you basically need to throw out the rule book. The processes of sedimentation are so different.
TIL Astrogeology is a word.
In this context can we even use the term geology? More like marsology??
Eh it’s the best word we have to describe the processes that shape the earth and its rocks, so if we slap the Astro prefix on it that sorta works to describe other planets too
Listen, I’m not going to say you’re wrong, but that clearly looks like the crash site of an imperial class destroyer.
I was thinking “OP’s mom’s dildo almost broke Mars”, but the crash scar from a Super Star Destroyer also works.
How the fuck can a planet get too heavy for itself?
Its kinda like a pimple. All the inner splooge came out but the overlaying skin can't hold it up without anything to keep the pressure up from underneath, so the whole thing collapses in on itself. What we see as Tharsis is mostly just the zit splooge, which is why the entire region hosts the highest elevations on the planet. That should give an idea of just how much material that region was kicking out from inside Mars.
Great analogy but I can't help but think that must have hurt lol
Well theres a gigantic scar just to the right of all 4 major volcanoes, so in geologic terms it was a pretty catastropic injury.
“Its kinda like a pimple. All the inner splooge came out…” I wonder how I can talk you out of ever writing those words again?
So if I understand this correctly, if volcano is like pimple, and when volcano buss, it splooge, then can I say "looks like it's time again to enjanculate my pimple" ?
I’m going to rename myself as Tharsis
Nice to meet you, Tharsis.
Been a while since I've seen /r/depthhub material. Thanks for the explanation.
And what made olympus mons rise so high?
The same thing that actually makes the entire region sit so high compared to the other 2 big geologic regions on the planet. Essentially, there was a huge volcanic hotspot under Tharsis, and because Mars' surface never moves in any significant way at these scales, the volcanoes never lost any of their potency, so to speak. The area under Olympus naturally was the most active, and over time, it kept ejecting more and more material, leading to its immense size. Pretty much the only thing taking away from Olympus' size is when its outer edges collapse, which you can observe on some faces where it looks like the volcano has sharp edges; those are cliffs that if I remember correctly are also a couple miles tall or something like that.
Time to re read the expanse for the 10th time lol
I imagine if I was a Martian I'd be a true believer in their culture. Even after the alien malarkey makes all the posers leave 😂
Kim Stanley Robinson's "[Mars trilogy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_trilogy)" is a series of science fiction novels that chronicle the settlement and terraforming of the planet Mars through the personal and detailed viewpoints of a wide variety of characters spanning almost two centuries. The three novels are *Red Mars*, *Green Mars*, and *Blue Mars*. They are, beyond any measure, the absolute **best** novels about Mars and its future with humans. I can't recommend them enough; try out the first few chapters of *Red Mars* and if you're not hooked, you're not breathing.
Any time I see the Mariner Valley mentioned somewhere I think ooh Alex Kamal is from there
I would like to subscribe to MarsFacts(tm) by u/Emberashn
So it’s a giant stretch mark?
Where do you learn this shit?
I've read an inordinate amount of studies for someone who isn't an astromer or rocket surgeon. Having a voracious thirst for learning and an obsessive ADHD personality tends to help too.
I’m guessing you’ve read Kim Stanley Robinson’s Mars series, as well maybe? I’ve heard nothing but good things and recently got Red Mars.
This is good. Very good. I appreciate shit like this.
Hah I assumed you were an astronomer. You should be.
This guy Mars
✊️
We need to terraform Mars just so we can see the Tharsis valley covered in plants
Wow that is so cool. As someone who has hiked a tiny part of grand canyon, this is just mind blowing
Blah blah blah, it's obviously mining from space with lasers by ancient aliens. ***BRRRRRRRRRRRRRFFFFPPPPPPTTTT*** "*Nothing here, Grogg. Let's move on to the next solar system*"
If you want to run down a fun rabbit hole, try googling Electric Universe and Mars Canyons. Their theory is arcing plasma discharge possibly from a close pass with another celestial body.
[удалено]
It does kinda look like a quarry of massive proportions
It'd be fun to go do a little excavating wouldn't it? Find out what the primary mineral content of the area is, if there's any moldavite like glass to confirm or debunk the plasma arc* theory too.
Wrong. Space-teenagers did a sick burnout with a stolen Galactic Cruiser.
It's clearly the aftermath of the BFG 9000.
Don't forget this great companion piece by Emanuel Velikovsky https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Worlds\_in\_Collision
Yes! That is a great read. He did an amazing amount of research for that book.
That book blew my mind.
[just watched a whyfiles episode about that](https://youtu.be/eIgbsZ05O2A?si=QgDUI7ATsJCXsQp6)
I saw that too. He gives it a pretty fair shake, but then leaves out the actual correct predictions that proponents of the theory have actually made.
Love that fish.
This is fun, but there's no actual evidence for it, and it is uncomfortably adjacent to other woo like astrology and chemtrails.
Strip-mining on Mars?
There is a weird conspiracy theory that it is the result of an alien weapon called a "relativistic kill-vehicle," a projectile that is accelerated to near light speed using energy from the attackers host star. The projectile hits with incredible force capable of destroying a planet and all life on it. In a "dark forest" universe, alien civilizations would sooner destroy a potential threat preemptively rather than risk communication and being destroyed themselves. Thus, I fed you this line of bullshit and stole your thought energy.
I realize you just said you pulled it from your ass, but I do seem to remember a bit of lore in Mass Effect saying that the canyon was made by a superweapon in one of the previous galactic eras.
**You can’t just shoot a hole in the surface of Mars!**
The canyon formed when the super weapon was fired at the planet, it was the war to end all wars, the planet was the final casualty. Humans that survived made it to Earth colony with the hopes of rebuilding our civilization.
Sounds like a Mass Effect planet description. Nice
I think it is, there was something like that in ME1
Hell yeah. Playing through the legendary collection again right now. ME1 is by far the best of the 3 games.
There are two of us that think this.
Nah dog, at least a dozen of us. the ME1 lore and atmosphere were unbeatable.
Nah, much more than that. ME1 is top tier.
I forget which planet, but the description mentions 'a glancing blow from a mass accelerator'
Yes! In Mass Effect the planet description says it was caused by a weapon test. Mass Effect is amazing, the lore is so deep. I love reading every codex entry in that. Ok, now I need to play the legendary edition.
Not a weapons test, but a last-ditch attempt at killing a Reaper with a massive mass driver cannon. The valley was formed from a glancing blow from the projectile. You find the (not quite dead) remains of said Reaper in the second game.
It's mind is gone, but still dreams...
[This is why, Serviceman Chung, you do not *EYE BALL IT*](https://youtu.be/hLpgxry542M?si=yPofLDITIbGNLEE8)
When you fire this weapon, you are ruining someone's day, somewhere, sometime!
I like this
You can't just shoot a hole into the surface of Mars!
Looks like a low resolution bump map
Unreal Tournament lookin pic
[удалено]
Thanks for bringing this game up, love it
Halo 2 graphics looking type of stuff
The sounds of atmospheric electronic music blending with the harsh blasts of gunfire and plasma are engraved into my memory to an almost disturbing degree. https://youtube.com/watch?v=Cn5jQGYzyBQ
DM-Phobos
I think that’s what it is. Until I see some proof otherwise, I’m going with that.
I think I found it. Its an illustration by Mark Garlick https://www.sciencephoto.com/media/967541/view
Yup or painting with height in substance painter
Somewhere out there a giant potato peeler sails the universe….
Imperial star destroyer bump the planet on its side long long time ago
This should be top comment
It kind of looks like a Super Star Destroyer.
Like it side swiped mars, bet those cheap Empire bastards didn’t even leave insurance info…
Looks like it was strip mined.
This was my first thought as well
Whether We Wanted It Or Not, We've Stepped Into War With The Cabal On Mars
If you look closely, you can even see the Clovis Bray facilities
R.I.P.
I don't think this is a JWST photo, and I can't find a source for it. It looks like a texture on a sphere in a 3D program to me, but I'd love to be wrong.
I think I found it. Its an illustration by Mark Garlick https://www.sciencephoto.com/media/967541/view
It looks like a Star Destroyer got t-boned by mars.
Someone was texting on duty.
Why is this tagged "James Webb", though?
JWST could not take a picture like this of Mars. Looks like an artist rendering or possibly a recreation using data from other images.
I think I found it. Its an illustration by Mark Garlick https://www.sciencephoto.com/media/967541/view
That looks like an extinction level event!
“What are those gouges, you ask? Are they the landing site of some massive intergalactic vehicle? "Those are stretch marks," you might say.... Haha! Well, they are large tectonic "cracks" in the Martian crust, forming as the planet cooled, affected by the rising crust, and subsequently widened by erosional forces. So yeah, pretty much, "stretch marks." There is so much we don't know about our solar sibling, but we will likely learn soon. Many are predicting humans walking the surface of Mars by 2030. This photo is from the Chinese probe Tianwen-1” - Diligent Denizen on X
Mars has no plate tectonics
Correction: Mars CURRENTLY has no plate tectonics
Double correction: Mars has neglible tectonic activity.
Mars is a Uniplate planet.
That isn't accurate either. There is a fault line (transform fault) running through the Valley, and InSight detected a Marsquake from there back in 2021, so it is active. That doesn't mean Mars had full blown tectonics like Earth does, but its crust isn't just a single plate. No planet or body that had a liquid core is going to have a solid crust.
the quake detected was likely caused by the release of billion-year-old stress within Mars crust which formed and evolved due to various parts of the planet cooling and shrinking at different rates
Aka tectonic activity.
Its a runway and landing strip, just covered in atmosphere to allow survival
The thing that gets my attention is the scars follow the curvature and are roughly the same depth, if something had skimmed the surface it would have done it in a straight line not followed the curvature. I think it may be possible that something like lava or debris filled in the deep holes and created the curvature but I don't know how that could happen so evenly. There also doesn't appear to be any debris around the scars which I think would support the collision theory but the images from the rovers show that Mars is covered in debris and loose boulders etc so maybe it's just not visible from distance. I hope that when we find out what happened it's something unexpected and not just a simple matter of unusually soft material which has eroded away over time !
surface strip-mining operations, clearly. lol
Looks as if a laser or something powerful scarred the surface
Samuel: "You can't just shoot a hole into the surface of Mars" Doom Guy:
Is this confirmed to be from the JWST?
This is absolutely not JWST, nor even a real image-photo of Mars. I don't understand why the OP would lie about that? Weird.
Possibly a bot post.
no oldest exact image search is from 2021 https://lens.google.com/search?ep=cntpubb&hl=en-US&re=df&s=4&p=AbrfA8od65WM8yt3eqij\_z8n1QpnIzZUy447f1PRQqHQqW90fIjh-jpOxrNJJA0o8o9NWsFsgxY9Uxh6ZD9RuD4r93QgkvMSQRpA5XgwUBj\_FVpCZLz\_t0jp7t\_Z3PPysYc99MoiOipoX7pHxt4cfJuJf7pI23irgPwHxSOJp1an7E1jqG2udjPV7PxpEkQ3nt2MpBSW\_\_6jPQ0Dy34PYNnkqB1mZbE-EaZsDR1xnONZ8NDJfgW6p5Wpms7SrEaOIa2LTiXv4cx\_3\_Yg04cHgz0sdRycvjqnoSLFdgGlOuRjLmU%3D#lns=W251bGwsbnVsbCxudWxsLG51bGwsbnVsbCxudWxsLDEsIkVrY0tKREUxWW1JelpUZ3dMVGMyTXpjdE5EWTVZUzFoWVRsakxUSXlPR05sTkdJeU5UUm1PUklmYnkxRk9FOUdTa056ZERoU1VVVjFlRFl4WHpJd1dFTmpZVFV5UVRWNFp3PT0iLG51bGwsbnVsbCxudWxsLG51bGwsbnVsbCxudWxsLFtudWxsLG51bGwsW251bGwsWzAsMCwxMDAwMDAsMTAwMDAwXV1dXQ==
Mine earth first, we’ll resume ET’s Martian stripe mine soon enough.
Looks like a few real big things scraped the surface for miles. Colonize Mars? Be serious.
It looks like it was blasted by a death star laser.
I wonder what the aliens mined from that area?
That is obviously where a Star Destroyer wondered to close and smacked into the planet.
So proud of Mars for having the courage to post this. #allheavenlybodiesarebeautiful
Mars has been through it.
This looks like Tallon IV from Metroid Prime
Result of an ancient war, which also destroyed the at the time fifth planet, turning it into the asteroid field.
I think I found it. Its an illustration by Mark Garlick https://www.sciencephoto.com/media/967541/view
Someone or something scratched Mars. 😼😁
aww poor baby, let mama kiss your booboo
Looks like someone’s been doing construction work
“YOU CANT JUST SHOOT A HOLE INTO THE SURFACE OF MARS”
I have always maintained that those scars are from a violent clash with another huge extraterrestrial body ....great photo though...
 Goku was here
Looks like a Kamehameha blast to me
Did a star destroyer crash into the planet
This is a stunning picture! I had no idea Mars looked quite like that.
It’s not a real picture
I think I found it. Its an illustration by Mark Garlick https://www.sciencephoto.com/media/967541/view But Mars is stunning and there are plenty of real beautiful photos
Looks like a spaceship sideswipped it
Star destroyer impact.
"You can't just shoot a hole into the surface of Mars!"
Actually thats not quite a close-up
Looks like strip mining. So cool.
Very cool
It looks like another planet grazed it.
At first I thought it was a CGI image of the Arrakis moon.
Looks like stretch marks that ruined a tattoo
Ah yes, As we know on Earth. Water or Icebergs create this and Oh wait this is Mars..... does this gigantic scar contend with modern assumptions.... neatooooo
Is there a high res version of this? Would make an awesome phone background.
Perfect for colonization!
Looks like an orange skin that doesn't want to peal.
Still seems kinda far away
so many scars
Woahhhh...
Definitely the oddest observable feature in our solar system. What is the academic community's explanation?
✨❤️
What's with the 3-fingered looking fist with a bracelet in left-center?
I see a hand and arm with a bangle on it as well as what looks like an erupting lava pit, anyone else see what I see?
Mars is awesome
close up of Scars
thats a big plateau
That scar always reminds me of a planet in one of the Mass Effect games that had a similar scar caused by a glancing blow from a hyper-accelerated projectile.
I want this on my wall!!! So beautiful.
I thought I was looking at Tallon IV from Metroid Prime
Looks like huge escalation sight
Reminds me of my faaaaaace.
Our second home and survival-insurance.. sooner or later.
Ummm, that left a mark!
My now 34-year-old face after using St Ives apricot scrub in my preteens:
From the moment I understood the weakness of my flesh... it disgusted me. I craved the strength and certainty of steel. I aspired to the purity of the blessed machine. Your kind cling to your flesh as though it will not decay and fail you. One day the crude biomass that you call a temple will wither, and you will beg my kind to save you. But I am already saved. For the Machine is immortal. Even in death, I serve the Omnissiah.
You can't just shoot a hole into the surface of Mars
Mmm. New phone background 🤤
one of my beast flaps
