[imagesource:wikicommons]

The science bros have released another thrilling video; This time viewers can experience flying through Mars’ enormous “Labyrinth of Night,” a system of extremely steep valleys and mountains about the length of Italy.

Noctis Labyrinthus, Latin for “Labyrinth of Night,” has valleys that cross one another and are up to 30 kilometres broad, or about as long as Manhattan, and 10 kilometres deep.

The European Space Agency (ESA) has published a film in which you can also see craters, the remains of massive landslides, and dunes caused by sandstorms. The video also features ‘grabens’ – peculiar geological formations that indicate plate tectonics. According to a statement from ESA, these “stretch marks” are areas of the Martian crust that have been stretched and broken by volcanic activity.

Data from Europe’s Mars Express satellite, which has been capturing pictures ever since arriving at Mars in December 2003, was used to build the simulation. We now know much more about the geology and atmosphere of Mars thanks to this mission.

The “Labyrinth of Night” video was created with images from the orbiter’s High Resolution Stereo Camera. In addition to taking full-color images, it also mapped the surface in 3D, giving us a glimpse at the detailed topography shown in the video.

Behold the Noctis Labyrinthus:

[source:livescience]