Amazing features of Mars

 

An albedo feature is a large area on the surface of a planet (or other Solar System body) which shows a contrast in brightness or darkness (albedo) with adjacent areas.

With these features we can study Mars from Earth through telescope.

Vastitas Borealis (Latin 'northern waste') is the largest lowland region of Mars.

 It is in the northerly latitudes of the planet and encircles the northern polar region. 

Vastitas Borealis is often simply referred to as the northern plains, northern lowlands or the North polar erg of Mars.

 The plains lie 4–5 km below the mean radius of the planet, and is centered at 87.73°N 32.53°E.

The region was named by Eugene Antoniadi, who noted the distinct albedo feature of the Northern plains in his book La Planète Mars (1930). 

The region is patterned with chains and polygons.

 These are a result of the ice which is present in the soil reacting to drastic temperature fluctuations. 

During summers, as this ice melts, the dark soil present underneath is revealed. 

The surface of Mars is rocky, with canyons, volcanoes, dry lake beds and craters all over it.

 Red dust covers most of its surface.

 Mars has clouds and wind just like Earth. Sometimes the wind blows the red dust into a dust storm.

The Tharsis Montes are three large shield volcanoes in the Tharsis region of the planet Mars. 

From north to south, the volcanoes are Ascraeus Mons, Pavonis Mons and Arsia Mons. 

Mons (plural montes) is the Latin word for mountain; it is a descriptor term used in astrogeology for mountainous features in the Solar System.

The now silent Olympus Mons is a shield volcano, one that consisted entirely of lava flows. 

At 624 km in diameter and 25 km high, it is the largest volcano in our solar system (Mt. Everest on Earth falls a long way short at 8.8 km!). 

In fact, it is so huge that even if you were standing on Mars, you would not be able to view it in its entirety because of the planet’s curvature.

It resides at the edge of the Tharsis Montes region, which is known for its large number of volcanoes that are up to 100 times bigger than those on Earth. 

Valles Marineris is one such system, and one of the largest canyons in the solar system. 

 It is 4,000 km long in total, 200 km wide, and 7 km deep. In fact, its length is equivalent to that of the United States! 

With large telescopes, Valles Marineris is visible as a dark line near Mars’ equator. 

Syrtis Major Planum is another shield volcano (like Olympus Mons) and one of the darkest regions on the planet.

 As with other dark regions on Mars, Syrtis Major too consists of basaltic volcanic rock. 

Huygens is an impact crater on Mars named in honour of the Dutch astronomer, mathematician and physicist Christiaan Huygens. 

It is the fifth largest recognizable impact crater on Mars after Utopia, Hellas, Argyre, and Isidis, and the largest one with a near intact rim. 

Hellas Planitia(basin)  is a plain located within the huge, roughly circular impact basin Hellas located in the southern hemisphere of the planet Mars.

Hellas is the third- or fourth-largest known impact crater in the Solar System. 

The basin floor is about 7,152 m (23,465 ft) deep, 3,000 m (9,800 ft) deeper than the Moon's South Pole-Aitken basin, and extends about 2,300 km (1,400 mi) east to west.

 Hellas Planitia spans the boundary between the Hellas quadrangle and the Noachis quadrangle.

Due to its size and its light coloring, which contrasts with the rest of the planet, Hellas Planitia was one of the first Martian features discovered from Earth by telescope.

 Before Giovanni Schiaparelli gave it the name Hellas (which in Greek means Greece), it was known as Lockyer Land, having been named by Richard Anthony Proctor in 1867 in honor of Sir Joseph Norman Lockyer, an English astronomer who, using a 16 cm (6.3 in) refractor, produced "the first really truthful representation of the planet"

Crater with Surrounding Bench in Sinus Meridiani (3-D)

This image is located within Northern Sinus Meridiani, a region of ridged terrains and extensive stratigraphic layering.

Originally identified in a Mars Orbiter Camera image (MOC), this 10 kilometer (approximately 6 miles) diameter crater is surrounded by a prominent bench. 

As this HiRISE image shows, there is extensive layering in the upper cap units.

The bench formed because these layered surface units are eroding at a faster rate than the more resistant underlying materials that comprise the rest of the crater.

The Martian crater Schiaparelli is in the center of this 1980 mosaic from the Viking orbiter.

Schiaparelli  is an impact crater on Mars, located near the planet's equator at latitude 3° south and longitude 344° in the Sinus Sabaeus quadrangle. 

Arabia Terra is a large upland region in the north of Mars located mostly in the Arabia quadrangle. 

It is densely cratered and heavily eroded. 

This battered topography indicates great age, and Arabia Terra is presumed to be one of the oldest terrains on the planet.

 Gill Crater is an impact crater in the Arabia quadrangle of Mars.

You can see some Indian names also given to Mars features. 

Mangala Valles 

(Mangala)Word for "Mars" in Sanskrit.

Mangala Valles is a complex system of criss-crossing channels on Mars.

 It is thought to be an outflow channel, carved by catastrophic floods, and the release of vast quantities of water across the Martian surface. 

This flooding was probably initiated by tectonic stretching and the formation of a graben, Mangala Fossa, at the channels' head, perhaps breaching a pressurized aquifer trapped beneath a thick "cryosphere" beneath the surface. 

In geology, a graben  is a depressed block of the crust of a planet or moon, bordered by parallel normal faults.

A vallis is a valley. 

On Mars large valles are named after words for Mars/star in various languages. 

Small valles are named after classical or modern names of rivers,such as Ravi Vallis,Kasei Vallis. 

Ravi Vallis was named after the Ravi River, an ancient Indian river.

Ravi Vallis is an ancient outflow channel on Mars.

The Kasei Valles are a giant system of canyons on Mars, centered at 24.6° north latitude and 65.0° west longitude.

 They are 1,580 km (980 mi) long and were named for the word for "Mars" in Japanese.

This is one of the largest outflow channel systems on Mars.

This is an introduction to some  astonishing  features of Mars.

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