Uncovering the Mysteries of Mars: The Top Mind-Blowing Spots You Need to See
MARS is home to some mind-blowing landscapes, from volcanoes five times the height of Everest to fields of so-called “ghost dunes”. With plans for future cities on Mars already in motion, humans might just be able to explore these regions for themselves in the 2030s and beyond.
Exploring Mount Mons
Mount Mons is the largest volcano in our solar system, and the tallest on Mars. Standing five times the height of Earth’s Mount Everest, with a crater roughly the size of Hawaii, the volcano will be a huge landmark for both tourists and permanent residents of Mars in the future. The volcano is 13 miles (21km) high, so it won’t be for the faint of heart.
Discovering the Tharsis Volcanoes
Mount Mons is just one of a dozen large volcanoes in the Tharsis region that runs along the Martian equator. For interstellar hikers, Mount Mons will offer cracking views of the Tharsis Volcanoes. These volcanoes are dormant, and haven’t exploded for billions of years – posing little risk to hikers who wan’t to avoid a hot bum. On Earth, humans regularly trek up volcanoes, like Mount Fuji in Japan, Mount Etna in Sicily, and Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania. Although, of course, these volcanoes tend to be much larger than those on Earth.
Exploring Nili Fossae
Once dubbed the ‘most colourful region on Mars’ by Time Magazine, images of the Nili Fossae region are truly a sight to behold. The Nili Fossae, located on the northwest rim of Isidis impact basin, is a trough carved into the surface on Mars by a suspected impact long ago. The area has long been considered ideal for future human, and has even been earmarked as a future landing site. Images of the site were captured by by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on Nasa’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter in 2016. While the beauty is enough to make you doubt that Mars was ever really red, the shots are infrared false-color images. This means the colors in the final image may not be what you expect them to be. However, just like on the black sand beaches of Iceland, the area is thought to host basaltic terrains. Scientists have also discovered olivine-basalt sands in the region, which can appear green and black. So it still might be one of the more color-diverse regions on the Red Planet.
Digging into Valles Marineris
Alongside the largest volcano in the solar system, Mars is also home to the largest canyon. At roughly 1850 miles (3000km) long, Valles Marineris makes the Grand Canyon look like a mere crack in the sand. Melas Chasma is the widest segment of the Valles Marineris canyon system. How exactly Mars earnt this giant scar baffles scientists to this day.
Adventuring to the North Pole
Visiting either Pole will surely take your breath away – if you can survive the temperatures. But the swirling dark spiral of ice that crowns the Martian North Pole look stunning (from afar). Whether space tourists will want to brave the steely katabatic winds, where temperatures can sit as low as −153 °C (−243 °F), is another thing.
Uncovering the Secret of Ghost Dunes
Imagine staring out upon a field of hundreds of hardened casts of ancient sand dunes, and walking through their curls like waves frozen in time. These so-called “ghost dunes” cover Mars, and researchers have discovered fields that contain more than 300 of these unique features. They are what remains of Mars’ warmer, and more water-rich history. While there are modern dunes on Mars, the ancient sand banks are thought to possibly hold signs of life.