New images published by the European Space Agency have captured a 600-kilometer-long (373-mile-long) serpentine scar on the surface of Mars in greater detail than ever before. The Red Planet is covered in scratches and scars, and this one, called Aganippe Fossa, is another of these steep-sided, trench-like grooves — more specifically, though, Aganippe Fossa is what’s called a “graben.”
“We still don’t know how and when Aganippe Fossa formed, but it seems likely that it was created by magma rising beneath the colossal mass of the Tharsis volcanoes, stretching and tearing the Martian crust,” ESA officials wrote in a recent press release.
As is common in planetary nomenclature, the name “Aganippe Fossa” has its roots in classical mythology. Aganippe, daughter of the river Termessos, was a nymph associated with a spring found at the foot of Mount Helicon in Greece. In homage to the origin of the naming, Aganippe Fossa appears at the foot of one of Mars’ largest volcanoes, Arsia Mons. “Fossa” is then derived from the Latin term for trench or gully, and refers to a long, narrow depression on the surface of a planet or moon.
The newly released images come from ESA’s Mars Express, Europe’s first mission to the Red Planet, which has been orbiting Mars since 2003. Although its lander, Beagle 2, has been lost, the orbiter is still conducting a global survey of Mars, mapping minerals, studying the atmosphere, probing beneath the crust and investigating the planet’s blob-shaped moons, Phobos and Deimos.
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Mars Express captured the new images from Aganippe Fossa with its high-resolution stereoscopic camera, revealing the various surface features of Mars in great detail. Both clustered, uneven hills and smooth, gently sloping cliffs covered in debris were visible, known as hummocky and lobate terrains, respectively.
These terrains are characteristic of Arsia Mons’ ring-shaped “halo,” the ESA press release said, referring to a 100,000-square-kilometre (38,610-square-mile) disk around the base of the volcano, possibly associated with ancient glaciers. “Intriguingly,” the statement continued, “this halo has only built up on the northwestern flank of the volcano, probably as a result of prevailing winds from the opposite direction that determine where ice has been deposited time.”
The team also describes the dynamics of windblown dust and sand in this region of Mars, which create “zebra-like” patterns on the planet’s surface as a result of darker material being deposited on lighter soil. “The surface here also shows evidence of lava flows, dating back to the time when the volcano was active,” the scientists wrote.
Aganippe Fossa is one of many classic albedo features on Mars, which refers to the light and dark features seen on the planet even through a Soil-based telescope. With roomSpace probes have provided astronomers with unprecedented views of the planet’s surface and its intriguing topography.
“The mission has been enormously productive throughout its lifetime, leading to a much more complete and precise understanding of our neighbouring planet than ever before,” ESA scientists said.