Amazing new Mars image! A moon, a volcano, an atmosphere

02.09.2024 21:57

Earthsky.org

View larger. | The European Space Agency’s Mars Express spacecraft captured this new image of Mars on July 13, 2024. And Andrea Luck processed it. The dark object hovering above Mars (center top of this image) is its larger moon, Phobos. And the dark orange protrusion near the limb (edge) – in about the 4 o’clock position – is our solar system’s largest volcano, Olympus Mons. Plus, look closely at the Martian limb itself in this new Mars image. You can see wisps of Mars’ thin atmosphere against the darkness of space. Image via ESA/ Andrea Luck/ CC BY.

New Mars image shows stunning detail

ESA’s Mars Express spacecraft has been observing the red planet for more than two decades. One of the craft’s newest images – captured on July 13, 2024, and processed by Andrea Luck – shows an impressive array of Martian features. In it, we can see the lumpy satellite that is the Mars moon Phobos, the massive volcano Olympus Mons on Mars’ surface, and a thin wisp of high-altitude clouds in Mars’s atmosphere along the planet’s limb, or edge.

Phobos and Mars’ other moon, Deimos, were likely once asteroids that the red planet drew in with its gravity. Phobos is the larger of the two moons, and it’s circling ever-closer to Mars. One day some 50 million years from now, it will either crash into the planet or get shredded into a ring.

Olympus Mons is the largest volcano in our solar system. But it hasn’t erupted for about 25 million years. Still, scientists consider it the youngest of the large volcanoes on Mars. The giant volcano is about the size of Poland.

And the red planet’s atmosphere is quite thin, showing up with some high-altitude clouds looking like a pale wisp against the blackness of space. In fact, Olympus Mons is taller than the atmosphere is thick. As Lowell Observatory has reported:

Mars’ atmosphere is so thin that the volcano’s peak actually pokes out above it, meaning that if one were to hike to the summit of Olympus Mons, they would hike into space.

Another image looking down at Mars

If you love images of Mars, then check out this one below from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. This image, from September 24, 2021, captures a 3rd mission to Mars, the Perseverance rover, exploring the red planet’s surface.

1) Open this image up

2) Zoom in to find the small, bright, bluey–white object

3) Congratulations you've spotted the @NASAPersevere rover from orbit pic.twitter.com/oAhn4kB37L

— Paul Byrne (@ThePlanetaryGuy) August 31, 2024

Bottom line: A new Mars image showcases the moon Phobos, the largest volcano in the solar system, Olympus Mons, and the red planet’s thin atmosphere.

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