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Mars
Odyssey Imagery
03.13.06
Mars
Canyon with Los Angeles for Scale
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Credit:
NASA/JPL/Arizona State University.
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14 MB Format
mov.
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53 MB Format
mpeg
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A "Grand Canyon of
Mars" slices across the Red Planet near its equator. This
canyon -- Valles Marineris, or the Mariner Valley -- is 10 times
longer and deeper than Arizona's Grand Canyon, and 20 times
wider. As the picture shows, you could drop the whole Los Angeles
basin into a small part of Valles Marineris and leave plenty of
room to spare. In length, the canyon extends far enough that it
could reach across the United States from East Coast to West
Coast, while its rim stands more than 25,000 feet high, nearly as
tall as Earth's Mount Everest.
This scene comes from
"Flight Through Mariner Valley," an exciting video
produced for NASA by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The video
takes viewers on a simulated flight into Valles Marineris, where
they explore its scenic wonders as their imaginary scout ship
dives low over landslides and races through winding canyons.
The video features high-resolution images from Arizona
State University's Thermal Emission Imaging System multi-band
camera on NASA's Mars Odyssey. The images, which show details as
small as 300 meters (1,000 feet) across, were taken at infrared
wavelengths during the Martian daytime. Scientists joined
hundreds of individual frames from the camera into a giant
mosaic, then colored the mosaic to approximate how Mars would
appear to the human eye.
To give the mosaic depth and
height, moviemakers fitted it to a computerized topographic model
for Valles Marineris. This was developed using hundreds of
thousands of altitude measurements by the Mars Orbiter Laser
Altimeter, an instrument on NASA's Mars Global Surveyor
spacecraft.
Winding Side Canyon (Louros Valles)
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Credit:
NASA/JPL/Arizona State University
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Viewers experience
roller-coaster twists and turns as they fly up a winding
tributary valley that feeds into Valles Marineris, the "Grand
Canyon of Mars." Geologists think channels such as these
were carved by water as it escaped through faults and cracks in
the subsurface. This caused the ground above it to collapse,
leaving a meandering channel that resembles a stream valley on
Earth.
This scene comes from "Flight Through Mariner
Valley," an exciting video produced for NASA by the Jet
Propulsion Laboratory. The video takes viewers on a simulated
flight into Valles Marineris, where they explore its scenic
wonders as their imaginary scout ship dives low over landslides
and races through winding canyons.
The video features
high-resolution images from Arizona State University's Thermal
Emission Imaging System multi-band camera on NASA's Mars Odyssey.
The images, which show details as small as 300 meters (1,000
feet) across, were taken at infrared wavelengths during the
Martian daytime. Scientists joined hundreds of individual frames
from the camera into a giant mosaic, then colored the mosaic to
approximate how Mars would appear to the human eye.
To
give the mosaic depth and height, moviemakers fitted it to a
computerized topographic model for Valles Marineris. This was
developed using hundreds of thousands of altitude measurements by
the Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter, an instrument on NASA's Mars
Global Surveyor spacecraft.
High View of Melas
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Credit:
NASA/JPL/Arizona State University.
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Soaring high above Valles
Marineris, the "Grand Canyon of Mars," viewers look
down and catch a sight resembling parts of the desert West of the
United States, but on a vastly greater scale. Here the canyon
averages over a hundred miles wide, and its floor is heaped with
rocks, sediments, and landslide debris. Within the canyon walls
lie possibly hundreds of layers filling many pages of Mars'
geologic record.
This scene comes from "Flight
Through Mariner Valley," an exciting video produced for NASA
by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The video takes viewers on a
simulated flight into Valles Marineris, where they explore its
scenic wonders as their imaginary scout ship dives low over
landslides and races through winding canyons.
The video
features high-resolution images from Arizona State University's
Thermal Emission Imaging System multi-band camera on NASA's Mars
Odyssey. The images, which show details as small as 300 meters
(1,000 feet) across, were taken at infrared wavelengths during
the Martian daytime. Scientists joined hundreds of individual
frames from the camera into a giant mosaic, then colored the
mosaic to approximate how Mars would appear to the human eye.
To give the mosaic depth and height, moviemakers fitted
it to a computerized topographic model for Valles Marineris. This
was developed using hundreds of thousands of altitude
measurements by the Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter, an instrument
on NASA's Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft.
Landslide
Run-Out
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Credit:
NASA/JPL/Arizona State University.
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Ages ago, a giant
earthquake shook the walls of Valles Marineris, the "Grand
Canyon of Mars," and triggered a catastrophic landslide that
crashed down 15,000 feet. Diving into the canyon on a simulated
aerial flight, viewers fly over this billion-ton rockslide that
extends for nearly a hundred miles.
This scene comes from
"Flight Through Mariner Valley," an exciting video
produced for NASA by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The video
takes viewers on a simulated flight into Valles Marineris, where
they explore its scenic wonders as their imaginary scout ship
dives low over landslides and races through winding canyons.
The video features high-resolution images from Arizona
State University's Thermal Emission Imaging System multi-band
camera on NASA's Mars Odyssey. The images, which show details as
small as 300 meters (1,000 feet) across, were taken at infrared
wavelengths during the Martian daytime. Scientists joined
hundreds of individual frames from the camera into a giant
mosaic, then colored the mosaic to approximate how Mars would
appear to the human eye.
To give the mosaic depth and
height, moviemakers fitted it to a computerized topographic model
for Valles Marineris. This was developed using hundreds of
thousands of altitude measurements by the Mars Orbiter Laser
Altimeter, an instrument on NASA's Mars Global Surveyor
spacecraft.
Mars Canyon View
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Credit:
NASA/JPL/Arizona State University.
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Flying through the canyons
and over the ridges of Valles Marineris, viewers can experience
some of the thrills that gripped explorers who pushed into
unknown regions on Earth. Buried in the rocks of this magnificent
Martian canyon lies a history book of Mars that scientists have
just begun to open.
This scene comes from "Flight
Through Mariner Valley," an exciting video produced for NASA
by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The video takes viewers on a
simulated flight into Valles Marineris, where they explore its
scenic wonders as their imaginary scout ship dives low over
landslides and races through winding canyons.
The video
features high-resolution images from Arizona State University's
Thermal Emission Imaging System multi-band camera on NASA's Mars
Odyssey. The images, which show details as small as 300 meters
(1,000 feet) across, were taken at infrared wavelengths during
the Martian daytime. Scientists joined hundreds of individual
frames from the camera into a giant mosaic, then colored the
mosaic to approximate how Mars would appear to the human eye.
To give the mosaic depth and height, moviemakers fitted
it to a computerized topographic model for Valles Marineris. This
was developed using hundreds of thousands of altitude
measurements by the Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter, an instrument
on NASA's Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft.
Source
/ Credit: NASA/JPL/Arizona State University.
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