Space Game! Where in the Solar System is Destination Eight? (day 4)

Hey Space Bloggers!  Before we leave Destination 8 there’s one more thing (well, two) that I’ve just got to show you. Don’t wait another second. Look down now!

Courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech

Not impressed? Not even if I said you’re looking down on the biggest, tallest, widest known volcano in the solar system? Because it is.  Still means nothing? How about if I showed you this…

Courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech

That’s right. This mountain is as big as Arizona. The state!

Now that I’ve got you’re attention, you might want to know the specifics. Olympus Mons is a shield volcanoe like the Hawaiian Islands.  It’s 16 miles high – that’s three times taller than Mt. Everest. It’s 374 miles wide, and covers about 114,000 square miles – like Arizona.

But that’s nothing compared to this! Go ahead. Look again.

Credit: Viking Project, USGS, NASA

See that scar stretching across about a third of the globe?  That’s the longest, deepest, widest canyon in the solar system. Its 2000 miles long – more than 3 Grand Canyons linked end to end.  It was worth the trip, right!

There you go Space Bloggers.  Have fun exploring Destination Eight, and I’ll be back to congratulate all you good guessers on the next post!

Newcomers, be sure to check in at Space Game Rules!