r/spaceporn • u/joosth3 • Oct 07 '22

The tallest mountain in the solar system, Olympus Mons on Mars. It has a height of 25 km, Mount Everest is 'only' 8.8 km tall.

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215

u/Head-Command281 Oct 07 '22

Speaking of canyons. Mars also has a gigantic one.

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u/TenWholeBees Oct 07 '22

The Grander Canyon

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u/chaotemagick Oct 07 '22

The Cool Canyon

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u/MitchyMatt Oct 07 '22

2 Grand 2 Canyon

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u/BruarfossBlues Oct 07 '22

Grand Canyon 2, Mars Boogaloo

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u/coralrefrigerator Oct 07 '22

2 planets, 1 canyon

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u/einTier Oct 08 '22

Canyon Three: Continental Drift

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u/EnterTheNarrowGate99 Oct 08 '22

The stairs of learning

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u/vaudevillevik Oct 07 '22

Or the Cowboy Canyon. Or the Curly Canyon.

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u/LaikasDad Oct 07 '22

Canyun™ ... brought to you by Starlink™

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u/[deleted] Oct 08 '22

The cuddly canyon

1

u/EffortlesslyLearning Oct 08 '22

The cool ranch Dorito

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u/ronaldreaganlive Oct 07 '22

Mars is one big one upper.

1

u/FauxReal Oct 07 '22

Yet somehow still red in the face whenever we look at it.

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u/ninthtale Oct 07 '22

humility is a virtue

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u/KhabaLox Oct 07 '22

This implies that there is a planet somewhere with The Grandiest Canyon.

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u/Wemban_yams_it Oct 08 '22

There must be.

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u/WheelyFreely Oct 08 '22

Grand canyon 2

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u/ergo-ogre Oct 07 '22

Canyoner

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u/GriIIedCheeseSammich Oct 07 '22

The Spaghetti Sauce Crevasse!

…also known as Valles Marineris

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u/bio180 Oct 07 '22

Still not as gigantic as your mon

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u/ninthtale Oct 07 '22

I worry people think you meant to say 'mom' and missed the 'mon' bit

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u/Head-Command281 Oct 07 '22 edited Oct 07 '22

Your mon climbed on my Olympus Mons to meet the gods. ;D

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u/tralfamadelorean31 Oct 07 '22

But... How could canyons have formed on mars without flowing water?

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u/SlimyRedditor621 Oct 07 '22

Isn't the working theory that mars did have water on its surface at some point?

They find a lot of things that to our knowledge water can only do.

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u/rob3110 Oct 07 '22 edited Oct 07 '22

Mars had flowing water in the past. These canyons are one of the reasons why we know that.

Edit: as pointed out below, Valles Marineris is considered to be caused by tectonic activity and maybe only some errosion from flowing water. But there are other reason why we think Mars had flowing in the past.

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u/Astromike23 Oct 07 '22

Mars had flowing water in the past. These canyons are one of the reasons why we know that.

Not exactly.

While we're fairly sure that Mars had flowing water at one point, the idea that Valles Marineris formed through erosional activity of water fell out of favor back in the '70s.

The current hypothesis is that it formed through tectonic activity.

Source: PhD in planetary atmospheres.

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u/rob3110 Oct 07 '22

Well, I knew about some involvement of tectonic activity and the existence of lava flow channels, but I thought water was considered to be the main factor. Thanks for the correction.

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u/phantuba Oct 07 '22

That is why, serviceman Chung, we do not "eyeball it"!

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u/roboticWanderor Oct 07 '22

Leading theory is that huge canyon is a rift valley caused by tectonics. The biggest canyons on earth are not made by rivers, but at the mid ocean rifts between continents, and they look a lot more like Valles Marineris than the grand canyon.

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u/Mrcountrygravy Oct 07 '22

Because it did have flowing water.

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u/cmzraxsn Oct 07 '22

They didn't,

It's actually really obvious if you look at a relief map, you can see old river canyons

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u/Capital-Western Oct 07 '22

One possibility is a tangential asteroid hit.

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u/Marsbarszs Oct 07 '22

Ngl, was expecting a Uranus joke

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u/qwertygasm Oct 07 '22

I feel like if we count that as a canyon we also have to count the Atlantic Ocean as one

1

u/FngrsRpicks2 Oct 07 '22

Grand Canyon 2: Electric Boogaloo?

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u/somabeach Oct 07 '22

Valley Marinara

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u/[deleted] Oct 08 '22

As wide as the continental US

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u/Greatli Oct 08 '22

Ahhh yes, The Big Black Canyon

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u/JBrundy Oct 08 '22

Nearly the fits across the entire United States

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u/SeekerSpock32 Oct 08 '22

It’s bizarre to me that Mars has both a much bigger mountain than any on Earth and a much bigger canyon than any on Earth, yet is considerably smaller than Earth as a whole.