Starship Asterisk*

Mars: Moon, Craters, and Volcanos

Explanation: If you could fly over Mars, what might you see? The featured image shows exactly this in the form of a Mars Express vista captured over a particularly interesting region on Mars in July. The picture's most famous feature is Olympus Mons, the largest volcano in the Solar System, visible on the upper right. Another large Martian volcano is visible on the right horizon: Pavonis Mons. Several circular impact craters can be seen on the surface of the aptly named red planet. Impressively, this image was timed to capture the dark and doomed Martian moon Phobos, visible just left of center. The surface feature on the lower left, known as Orcus Patera, is unusual for its large size and oblong shape, and mysterious because the processes that created it still remain unknown. ESA's robotic Mars Express spacecraft was launched in 2003 and, among many notable science discoveries, bolstered evidence that Mars was once home to large bodies of water.

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Nice picture!

To remove any ambiguity, it could be good to mention that, by "largest" volcano, you mean the tallest. Alba Mons, although much smaller in terms of elevation, is actually the "largest" volcano in terms of surface area.

Depends on how you define "largest" I guess. In terms of volume, Olympus Mons still wins out, with a 2011 study estimating it contains around 4 million km2 of material, compared to Alba Mons' 2.5 million km2, Kinda like comparing a large pancake to a big dish of ice cream: both are pretty filling!

So "Pavonis Mons" is the bump on Mars' limb? See:


And a close-up:

the largest volcano in the Solar System

One hates to be pedantic, but shouldn't that be "The largest known volcano in the Solar System" ? Or are we really sure about this?

gmPhil wrote: ↑Mon Sep 09, 2024 6:37 pm

the largest volcano in the Solar System

One hates to be pedantic, but shouldn't that be "The largest known volcano in the Solar System" ? Or are we really sure about this?

I think we're pretty sure. We've mapped the surface of all the terrestrial planets, and all the large moons. The possible gotcha could be an underwater volcano on one of the moons with a deep ocean under an ice crust.

...or a large volcano on the hypothetical ninth planet!