schneiderism

Definitely a highlight of my rather long day today was seeing these images taken by the ESA’s Mars Express robotic probe. The images depict the Echus Chasma series of canyons mentioned in the title, and I find them absolutely stunning. Planetary geologists believe that these chasms were formed by flowing ground water, and that they were carved over thousands of years. More images:

I absolutely geek out seeing the surface of Mars in such incredible detail. Our base of knowledge for Mars is growing rapidly, and it seems that with the Phoenix Mars Explorer, Mars Surveyor, and ESA’s Mars Express we have a trifecta of data and images streaming to us from the red planet.

Posts lately have been all things solar system, and that is because there is so much going on right now with regards to robotic exploration of Jupiter, Saturn, Mars and the their various moons. It is an exciting time to be a space exploration geek. I just came across the above image taken by the ESA’s Venus Express explorer of a vortex occurring in the southern polar region of the planet. This image was captured by Express back in 2006. I also found an excellent image montage of Express approaching Venus that shows some detail in the cloud covering that surrounds Venus.

Venus Express is essentially a reconfiguration of the ESA’s Mars Express explorer technology and left for Venus back in 2005. The goals for Venus Express are to explore the atmospheric composition and circulation on Earth’s closest neighbor, as well as how the atmosphere interacts with the planet’s surface. Venus is definitely inhospitable, with an atmosphere mostly comprised of noxious gasses and an incredibly hot surface temperature. Surprisingly, given the close proximity of Venus, we still know very, very little about the planet. Venus Express is helping to change this.