The Cosmic Gallery: The Most Beautiful Images of the Universe by Giles Sparrow

Author:Giles Sparrow
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub, azw3
Tags: PHOTOGRAPHY / Subjects & Themes / Landscapes
Publisher: Quercus
Published: 2014-12-09T08:00:00+00:00

OBJECT Lagoon Nebula, M8

DISTANCE 4,000 light years

RA 18h 03m 37s

DEC -24° 23’ 12”

OBSERVED WITH Hubble Space Telescope Advanced Camera for Surveys

THE LABYRINTH OF NIGHT

An array of colourful streaks and fractal patterns dominate this false-colour view of a single junction within the Noctis Labyrinthus, an extension of the enormous Valles Marineris canyon system on Mars.

The Valles Marineris or Mariner Valleys (named for the Mariner 9 spacecraft that discovered them in 1971) form the grandest canyon in the solar system. This vast crack in the Martian surface runs for more than 4,000 kilometres (2,450 miles) and is up to 10 kilometres (6 miles) deep in places. It is believed to have split open as a result of pressure created during the build-up of the Tharsis Rise, the volcanic ‘bulge’ that underlies many of the planet’s major volcanoes (see Tharsis Tholus). The romantically named Noctis Labyrinthus or ‘Labyrinth of Night’ is a maze-like system of smaller valleys between the Tharsis Rise and the main canyon, formed by faults linked to volcanic activity.

In this image from the Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) on board NASA’s Mars Odyssey spaceprobe, colour coding reveals temperature variations on the Martian surface around a depression some 4,000 metres (13,000 ft) deep. Cooler areas, shown in blue, are linked to accumulations of dust, while warmer areas in yellow and red show exposed rock.

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