After several weeks of hiatus owing to problems with Mars Global Surveyor's High Gain Antenna (e.g., see JPL Release (April 16, 1999)) the Mars Orbiter Camera resumed operations during the final days of April 1999. Shown here is one of the first images returned after MOC began taking pictures again.
Warrego Valles is a system of discontinuous valleys located in the martian southern hemisphere south of Valles Marineris between Aonia Terra and Icaria Planum. This picture shows one of the small valleys in this system. The planet's surface both inside and outside the valley appears to be extremely rough. A person would would find this terrain challenging to walk around in. The picture is illuminated from the upper left and covers an area 3 kilometers (1.9 miles) across.
We will be focusing on this area right now.
* THE EDWARDS CANAL *
There is always so much to see in these pictures.
As you can see in this small area the terrain is very rough.
Then we see this nice smooth canal shape.
Perhaps once long ago an underwater spring was here, or maybe ice flowed down.
At this time it is hard to say that this isn't a body of frozen liquids.
The caps on top of this area give the impression of ice.
Particularly in the music symbol formation that we can see.
We can also see the banks of the Edwards Canal that seem pretty steep.
It is rather beautiful just to look at.
Here we have a sharper view.
Almost looks like the banks on a cool running river.
Notice how precise the cuts along the sides are.
Only water can do that over a long period of time.
But who knows for sure. All we can do is look in awe at Mars.
This is about as close as we want to get without distorting the pic.
This picture shows you the incredible complexity of how the land is laid out.
There also appears to be some ridges in the middle of the canal, but it is hard to say exactly what it is.
THE EDWARDS CANAL
Now I took this same image and made Mars come to life as I saw it.
Imagine the whole planet all lush and green with water.
I don't often do this, but in this case I couldn't help myself.
I can just wonder how beautiful Mars may have been at one time.
I made this picture for your pleasure. I hope you like it.
THE EDWARDS CANAL
Copyright ©1998-9
Liz Edwards, All Rights Reserved
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