Incredible pictures of Mars - and they look surprisingly like some parts of Earth

[Dion]

Ever since Victorian astronomers pointed their telescopes towards Mars and wrongly believed they had discovered canals, mankind has been obsessed by the red planet.

Now these astonishing new images - captured by a European spacecraft in orbit around Mars - are helping to fuel that fascination.

They show in astonishing detail a network of giant valleys, vast plains and towering waterfalls carved into the surface of our neighbouring planet, millions of miles away

And while Mars today appears lifeless and parched, they are a reminder of how its surface was shaped by fast flowing streams, rivers and oceans.

The pictures were captured by the European Space Agency's Mars Express Probe - a spacecraft the size of a large fridge-freezer that has been circling Mars since Christmas 2003.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencete...rts-Earth.html

[Five-hole]

That's rad!

Some of those look like Dune could've taken place there.

[OutOfTheCube]

I think the big question is, if there was that much water there, what happened to it? Does a planet just randomly lose it's ability to sustain water/life?

[T@T]

12,000 foot river valleys, make our grand canyon look like Drumheller

[Daradon]

nm

[Daradon]

The end of life...

Too soon?

[Hemi-Cuda]

Originally Posted by OutOfTheCube

I think the big question is, if there was that much water there, what happened to it? Does a planet just randomly lose it's ability to sustain water/life?

there's a show called Naked Science on Discovery and they did an episode called Mars Waterworld that talks about just that. basically Mars is too small to sustain an atmosphere. it had one for a brief time (universally speaking) when it first cooled and liquid water was present on the surface. but because the gravity is so weak on Mars it couldn't hold it's atmosphere and the sun's solar wind eventually blew it away, then the water just boiled off and disappeared with nothing to protect it

when they were first formed, Mars and Earth were virtually identical. Earth however was fortunate in a sense to be impacted by another planet early in the solar systems life, adding more mass to Earth and creating our moon. and that extra mass is what allows us to keep our atmosphere and the water within it