Until around 3.5 billion years ago, Mars had a thicker atmosphere and was warmer than the present day, and evidence suggests that liquid water flowed on its surface, carving the many river channels that remain there today. The lakes shown on this map are lakes that are theorized to have existed around this time. In the north was an ocean, though it was probably never as high a sea level as shown here. At the north pole of the red planet was the ocean hundreds of meters deep. It is believed that much of this water was lost to space, carried away over time by the solar wind, and that which remains on Mars today is frozen in the polar ice caps and is also likely to be found frozen and buried across the planet under the surface layer of dust.

Many present-day geologic features and craters had yet to form or were in the process of forming, such as the Tharsis or Olympus volcanoes and the Valles Marineris canyon, but the map below uses modern terrain data so it doesn’t truly reflect how the terrain really would have looked back then. During this time period, Mars would have actually appeared to be more grey like the Moon or the planet Mercury, as the iron in the soil had yet to rust.

Also included on this map are the locations of the 7 successful Mars landers.

Terraformed Mars

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NASA

A new map of the thickness of Mars’ crust shows less variation between thicker regions (red) and thinner regions (blue), compared to earlier mapping. This view is centered on Valles Marineris, with the Tharsis Montes near the terminator to its west. The map is based on modeling of the Red Planet’s gravity field by scientists at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.

The researchers mapped the density of the Martian crust, estimating the average density is 2,582 kilograms per meter cubed (about 161 pounds per cubic foot). That’s comparable to the average density of the lunar crust. Typically, Mars’ crust has been considered at least as dense as Earth’s oceanic crust, which is about 2,900 kilograms per meter cubed (about 181 pounds per cubic foot).

Via NASA

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Valles Marineris stretches for approximately 4,000 kilometers (2,500 miles) across the Martian surface, making it one of the longest canyons in the solar system. It is also quite deep, with depths reaching up to 7 kilometers (4.3 miles) in some places. To put this in perspective, Valles Marineris is more than ten times longer and five times more profound than the Grand Canyon on Earth.

Valles Marineris is not a single continuous canyon but rather a complex system of interconnected canyons, troughs, and valleys. It contains various features, such as cliffs, ridges, mesas, and valleys. Some sections of the canyon system are wider, while others are narrower and more rugged.

The exact process that formed Valles Marineris is not fully understood, but it is believed to be the result of a combination of tectonic, volcanic, and erosional processes.

The canyons are clearly tectonic in nature. It’s a large tectonic “crack” in the Martian crust. Most scientists believe that the canyon was formed over billions of years as the crust thickened in the Tharsis region to the west, and was subsequently widened by erosion.

Valles Marineris has been of great interest to planetary scientists, and various missions to Mars have captured images and data from this region. Spacecraft like the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and the Mars rovers have provided detailed images and data that have contributed to our understanding of the canyon’s geology and history.

Valles Marineris presents a fascinating area for potential future exploration, both robotic and human. The unique geological features and the exposed rock layers could offer valuable information about Mars’ past and the possibility of past or present microbial life. Additionally, the canyon’s depth and shape could offer shelter and protection for future human missions to Mars.

Want to learn more about Mars? Then have a look at:

• A City on Mars: Can we settle space, should we settle space, and have we really thought this through?
• The Case for Mars: The Plan to Settle the Red Planet and Why We Must
• Map poster of Mars

The post How the Grand Canyon compares with Mars’ Valles Marineris appeared first on Vivid Maps.

The volcano’s diameter is about 374 miles or 624 kilometers (the same size as the state of Arizona) and is rimmed by a 4 miles (6 km) high scarp. It is the largest volcano discovered in the Solar System.

The maps below show Olympus Mons compared to Australia, France and the U.S. state Arizona.

Olympus Mons, Mars’ largest volcano, compared to Australia

Olympus Mons compared to France

Olympus Mons volcano compared to the U.S. state of Arizona

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Is there life on Mars? It depends how you interpret the question.

The chances of anything coming from Mars are a million to one according to Jeff Wayne. To date, the human species has yet to find evidence of biological life on Mars but we persist in our efforts to try and establish whether we are alone in the universe. The Curiosity lander has found evidence of flowing water which has certainly whetted our appetite further.

This map paints a picture of Mars and all that we, as a species, have done to explore that far away fiery red planet. We’ve certainly been enthralled about our distant neighbour and taken life TO Mars through various space missions and astronomical observations. So yes, there is life on Mars…life that we’ve applied through landing man-made craft and through naming features.

The map can be explored simply through pan and zoom but every crater that is marked by an abstract symbol (at large scales) can also be clicked to find out more about the feature.

Spacecraft landings and their details are also shown through the surface plaque screwed to the Martian surface. CLick to reveal details of the landings (or crashes).

And what about water? Evidence has recently been found that suggests water once flowed on the planet so it might be fun to see what it would look like with oceans.

Mars has a much greater range of elevation than Earth. The deepest point on Earth is in the Mariana Trench at 10,994m below sea level and the highest peak is Mt Everest at 8,848m above sea level. While we use sea level as Earth’s vertical reference datum, no sea level exists on Mars. However, elevation is measured against a proxy reference datum called the Mars areoid. The lowest point on Mars is found in the Hellas Impact Crater at 8,200m below the areoid. The highest peak is Olympus Mons volcano at 21,229m above the areoid.

You can irrigate the planet below the areoid on this map using the water layers. You’ll notice the water layers aren’t blue. On Earth, water appears blue due to red, orange, yellow and green wavelengths of light being absorbed more strongly than blue and also the reflectence of the blue sky. Since Mars has relatively little atmosphere and it’s farther from the sun it’s likely water will appear differently. We’re imagining wavelengths will be absorbed differently, perhaps returning an alien green?

Of course, Mars has been mapped many times before. Giovanni Schiaparelli’s map from 1880 maps classical albedo features based on his own astronomical observations. His initial naming conventions names ‘seas’ and ‘channels’. Of course, USGS has it’s own official topographic maps of mars. More recently, Chris Wesson’s map in the style of an Ordnance Survey sheet presented the Martian landscape in an alternative way. Eleanor Lutz map is also of a small extract of part of the planet, hand-drawn in a medieval styled effort. On these, and many other, maps of Mars, landscape features are named using the following conventions.

Catena (catenae): chain of craters
Cavus (cavi): hollows, irregular depressions
Chaos (chaoses): distinctive area of broken terrain
Chasma (chasmata): steep-sided depression
Collis (colles): collection of small hills or knobs
Crater (craters): circular depression (impact event)
Davida (bowiae): hidden map element
Dorsum (dorsa): ridge (wrinkle ridge)
Fluctus (fluctūs): terrain covered by outflow of liquid
Fossa (fossae): long, narrow, shallow depression
Labes (labēs): landslide debris
labyrinthus (labyrinthi): intersecting valleys or ridges
Lingula (lingulae): tongue of land
Mensa (mensae): flat-topped with cliff-like edges
Mons (montes): mountain or mountain range
Palus (paludes): small plain
Patera (paterae): irregular crater with scalloped edges
Planitia (planitiae): low plain
Planum (plana): plateau or high plain
Rupes (rupēs): scarp
Scopulus (scopuli): irregular Slope
Serpens (serpentes): sinuous feature with relief
Sulcus (sulci): subparallel furrows and ridges
Terra (terrae): extensive land mass
tholus (tholi): small domical mountain or hill
Unda (undae): Field of dunes
Vallis (valles): Valley
Vastitas (vastitates): Extensive plain

Large craters are named after deceased scientists who have contributed to the study of Mars; writers and others who have contributed to the lore of Mars.

Small craters are named after villages of the world with a population of less than 100,000.

Multiscale map from 1:73million to 1: 4million. Contour interval is 1000m at maps largest scale.
Projection: Mars 2000 Equidistant Cylindrical (based on Plate Carrée)

Elevation data from the Mars Orbitor Laser Altimeter (MOLA) instrument on the MGS (NASA/JPL/GSF) at approximately 463m/px.
Official IAU/USGS approved nomenclature from the MRCTR GIS lab (USGS).
Landing site data from NASA.

Map made by Kenneth Field using ArcGIS Pro and ArcGIS Online, 2016.
Via arcgis.com

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Liquid water cannot be on Mars due to low atmospheric pressure, which is less than 1 percent of the atmospheric pressure on our planet.

The two polar ice caps seem to be made mostly of water. If only the south polar ice cap melted water cover Marse’s surface to a depth of 11 meters (36 feet).

Moreover, in 2016 NASA found a large volume of underground ice in the Utopia Planitia area. The amount of discovered water is equivalent to the size of water in Lake Superior.

The map below created by Reddit user Crukey presents the surface of Mars if, like Earth, 71% of its surface area was covered with water.

And this is how Mars would look like with water and vegetation.

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North America on Jupiter


John Brady

USA on Moon


By Reddit user boredboarder8

The post North America on Mars & Jupiter appeared first on Vivid Maps.

Credits: MIT/UMBC-CRESST/GSFC

A map of Martian gravity looking down at the South Pole (White and red are areas of higher gravity; blue indicates areas of lower gravity).

Credits: MIT/UMBC-CRESST/GSFC



A Martian gravity map showing the Tharsis volcanoes and surrounding flexure (The white areas in the center are higher-gravity regions produced by the massive Tharsis volcanoes, and the surrounding blue areas are lower-gravity regions that may be cracks in the crust /lithosphere/).

Credits: MIT/UMBC-CRESST/GSFC

Scientists have used small fluctuations in the orbits of three NASA spacecraft to map the gravity field of Mars.

Via nasa.gov

The post New Gravity Map of Mars appeared first on Vivid Maps.

The chances of anything coming from Mars are a million to one according to Jeff Wayne. To date, the human species has yet to find evidence of biological life on Mars but we persist in our efforts to try and establish whether we are alone in the universe. The Curiosity lander has found evidence of flowing water which has certainly whetted our appetite further.

This map paints a picture of Mars and all that we, as a species, have done to explore that far away fiery red planet. We’ve certainly been enthralled about our distant neighbour and taken life TO Mars through various space missions and astronomical observations. So yes, there is life on Mars…life that we’ve applied through landing man-made craft and through naming features.

The map can be explored simply through pan and zoom but every crater that is marked by an abstract crater symbol (visible at large scales) can also be clicked to find out more about the feature.

The post (Is there) Life on Mars? appeared first on Vivid Maps.