Scientists discover a rare phenomenon on Mars that was not known before

Scientists from the European Space Agency (ESA) have presented a video composed of images of the Mars surface taken by the Mars Express spacecraft. The video shows a simulation of a «flight» over the largest maze on the Red Planet.

Between the giant system of canyons on Mars called Mariner’s Valley and the region with the highest volcanoes in the Solar System called Farsida Province is the largest maze on Mars — the Labyrinth of Night. This is a huge system of deep and steep canyons, the length of which is approximately 1200 km. For comparison, this is the approximate length of Italy.

The Mars Express spacecraft captured images of the eastern part of the Labyrinth of Night using its HRSC camera. All images were captured during the spacecraft’s eight orbits around Mars and then combined into a single video. Each second of the video consists of 50 separate images.

The canyons and valleys that intersect in the Labyrinth of Night are up to 30 km wide and 6 km deep. In many places, giant landslides can be seen covering the slopes and canyon bottoms, while on other slopes, large dune fields are visible, which appeared as a result of wind-blown sand on Mars.

The Mars Express spacecraft has already photographed the Labyrinth of Night in 2006 and in 2015. For 20 years, this spacecraft has been orbiting Mars and taking pictures of its surface, as well as studying the planet’s atmosphere.