Tour of Planet Mars
Are we alone in this Solar System? Might God have once considered other planets like Mars to establish life, perhaps a spectrum like Earth from simple microbes all the way up to advanced Martians? Has Mars always been an uninhabitable wasteland as it is today?
Figure 1 Mars Landscape from Viking 2 (credit: blogspot.com)
A historical event occurred May 31, 2020 when two American (NASA) astronauts launched aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9, docking at the International Space Station – the beginning of a private / government partnership. Within five years, SpaceX - NASA is expected to return to the Moon; somewhere in the not-to-distant future there is a plan to send astronauts to Mars. Thanks to the many un-manned spacecraft already sent to orbit and/or land on Mars, I can take you on a virtual tour to visit some of the most spectacular features on the red planet – it is red due to the rusting of its iron-rich soils. But first a little background information.
The nine planets of our Solar System were all birthed about 4.65 billion years ago – same time as the Sun; five planets are “gassy” (Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune, Uranus, and Pluto), and four are “rocky” (Mars, Earth, Venus, and Mercury). Only rocky planets of the right size, temperature, and chemical composition qualify as candidates to potentially support life. Mercury and Venus are disqualified for a multitude of reasons, but Mars and Earth have shared several life-supporting similarities in their past. For example, Mars once had abundant liquid water and a climate much less extreme than today. Earth has a 24-hour day; Mars has a 24 hour and 37-minute day. Mars has a 24-degree tilt to orbit compared to Earth’s 23.45-degree tilt. Both planets have sand dunes (see Figure 1), water-laid sediments, volcanoes, meteor craters, mountains and valleys, polar ice caps, moons, distinct seasons, clouds, ground water systems, storms, and trade winds. But that’s about it for similarities!
Figure 2 Martian Sunrise and Clouds (credit damncoolpictures.com)
Now, consider some major differences: Martian atmosphere of carbon dioxide 100 times thinner than Earth; virtually no water on the surface or in the atmosphere; much colder than Earth; no known life-forms; half the diameter and a tenth the mass of Earth: no magnetic field to deflect deadly cosmic radiation; 65 percent less gravity than Earth; and 687 days in a year.
Let’s begin the tour.
Figure 3 Crustal Dichotomy (credit dailygalaxy.com)
Pretend you are an astronaut on board the Mars-craft; this might be your view of the planet 25,000 miles before landing on the surface. The colors are not real; they are a false color composite, whereby colors are assigned based on reflectivity of light upon various soil types. Earth has a stark crustal dichotomy based on land and ocean; Mars has an obvious crustal dichotomy (blue vs multi-colors in the image), but without oceans. The multi-colored region reveals three distinct types of features: impact craters from meteors; mega-volcanoes; and dry river channels – we’ll explore these on our tour.
Figure 4 Volcanos and Canyons (credit triplespark.net)
Imagine being able to stand on top of Mount Everest and look down into the depths of the lowest point on Earth, the Mariana Trench. The difference in elevations, called “relief”, would be 12.35 miles. That same comparison on planet Mars, seen in Figure 4, would be between the tallest volcano, Olympus Mons and the deepest canyon, Valles Marineras – a whopping 18 miles of relief!
The Tharsis Region is truly the king of volcano/tectonic complexes; in fact, it is the largest complex of its kind in our solar system, a plateau 4.2 miles high and 4800 miles across. Eastern Tharsis contains twelve enormous volcanoes; the largest of these is Olympus Mons, 12 miles high and 330 miles across – it is by far the biggest volcano in our solar system.
Figure 5 Olympus Mons (credit blogspot.com)
Figure 5 is a reconstructed picture of Olympus Mons as it would appear to an observer on the surface nearly a hundred miles away. As we journey to the western side of Tharsis, we leave behind the giant volcanoes and enter the canyonlands of Mars. If you were impressed by the Grand Canyon which is a little over a mile deep, 277 miles long, and 18 miles wide, imagine a feature 6 miles deep, 3000 miles long, and 420 miles wide! That would be Valles Marineras.
Figure 6 Valles Marineras – Ius Chasma (credit prairieastronomyclub.org)
The Grand Canyon was the result of an area that was tectonically lifted, dissected by a complex of large faults, and subsequently eroded by rivers that exploited the faults. A similar history for Valles Marineras has been speculated. However, in this case the water didn’t necessarily come from flowing rivers, rather from an erosion process called “sapping”. Erosion by sapping tends to produce steep-sided U-shaped valleys of fairly uniform width with box-like, “theater-shaped” headwalls. Whatever the erosion mechanism, Mar’s impressive canyons point to a time of copious surface water on the planet, probably billions of years in the past.
Figure 7 Hellas Planitia Crater (credit mars.aeronomie.be)
Our tour would be incomplete without noting some of the largest impact features on Mars, scars from asteroid bombardment in its early history. The most important of these great impact basins are Hellas, Argyre, Isidis, and the ancient buried basin Utopia. The largest, Hellas Planitia, is 1080 miles across and 4.8 miles deep.
I hope you enjoyed your brief tour of the red planet. I am amazed at how much scientists already know about Mars. Imagine the bonanza of information we’ll obtain when humans are walking on its surface, perhaps during my children’s lifetime. As we continue to learn about God’s extraterrestrial creation, it becomes increasingly obvious that He put extra effort into planet Earth, making it a special paradise to support life and to call His home-away-from-home.
