A NASA chose to highlight the largest volcano in the Solar System, located on Mars, in the Astronomy Picture of the Day website this Tuesday, day 4. The volcano in question is known as Mount Olympus and is three times higher than Mount Everest – 8.8 km above sea level.
Mount Olympus is over 20km high and over 600km in diameter. Says NASA that, if someone decided to climb, it would be a relatively simple task, taking into account the shallow slopes and lighter gravity on Mars.
Researchers believe that Mount Olympus last erupted 25 million years ago and was formed by slower lava flows. The photograph was captured by the European Space Agency’s Mars Express probe, which is currently in orbit around the ‘Red Planet’.
© ESA
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