Dragon on Mars

 The picture of the Mars landscape was taken by the University of Arizona’s HiRISE camera.

Can you spot a dragon shape in this image of Mars?
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Can you spot a dragon shape in this image of Mars?Credit: NASA/jpl/UArizona

This camera is attached to Nasa’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter

It's been collecting valuable information from the red planet since 2006.

HiRISE’s official Twitter account posted the image and wrote: "We rotated this image of light-toned blocky material in southwestern Melas Chasma because from this perspective, it resembles a fabled Chinese dragon."

The photo was snapped from 160 miles above.

Mars's Melas Chasma is said to be canyon
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Mars's Melas Chasma is said to be canyonCredit: NASA/jpl/UArizona

It was first seen by scientists in 2007 but the outline of a dragon shape was not immediately obvious until the image was rotated.

The photo actually shows Mar's Melas Chasma, this is the reddish orange section of the picture.

Experts think this martian canyon is cutting through an ancient lake bed.

A University of Arizona blog post explains: "Along the floor of Melas Chasma is an unusual blocky deposit composed of light-toned blocks in a darker matrix.

"The high resolution of the HiRISE image reveals layers only a few meters thick in some of the light-toned blocks.

"The blocks vary in size but most fall between 100 to 500 meters in diameter."

Mars facts

Here's what you need to know about the red planet...

  • Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun
  • It is named after the Roman god of war
  • The landmass of Mars is very similar to Earth but due to the difference in gravity you could jump three times higher there than you can here
  • Mars is mountainous and hosts the tallest mountain known in the Solar System called Olympus Mons, which is three times higher than Everest
  • Mars is considered to be the second most habitable planet after Earth
  • It takes the planet 687 Earth days to orbit the Sun
  • So far, there has been 39 missions to Mars but only 16 of these have been successful

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