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Following are the longest, widest, and deepest rifts and valleys in various worlds of the Solar System.
| | This article needs additional citations for verification .(October 2015) |
Following are the longest, widest, and deepest rifts and valleys in various worlds of the Solar System.
| World | Rift/Valley | Length | Max. width | Max. depth | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Venus | Baltis Vallis | 6,800 km (4,200 mi) | 3 km (2 mi) | A lava channel | |
| Earth | Atlantic Ocean | ≈10,000 km (6,000 mi) | ≈6,000 km (4,000 mi) | 7.758 km (4.821 mi) | Length taken to be that of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. (The ridge also has a secondary rift valley running its length.) The width is an average taken along the spreading ridges (Georgia–Senegal, Brazil – Bight of Benin, etc.). The greatest depth is the Romanche Trench. (The Puerto Rico Trench is not part of the rift system.) |
| Great Rift Valley | 6,000 km (3,700 mi) | 220 km (140 mi) | 2 km (1 mi) | Width and depth are those of the Red Sea Rift, discounting continental shelves < 200 m deep. (These may not be the extremes of the whole rift system.) Length of the Red Sea section 2,250 km (1,400 mi). | |
| Canadian Arctic Rift System | 4,800 km (3,000 mi) | A northwesterly continuation of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. | |||
| West Antarctic Rift System | |||||
| Midcontinent Rift System | 2,000 km (1,200 mi) | 70 km (40 mi) | 0.27 km (0.17 mi) | Width & depth Isle Royale – Keweenaw Peninsula; may not be widest point. | |
| Grand Canyon | 277 km (200 mi) | 4–18 km (0–10 mi) | 1.857 km (1 mi) | ||
| Colca Canyon | 4.160 km (2.58 mi) | ||||
| Cotahuasi Canyon | 3.535 km (2.197 mi) | ||||
| Moon | Vallis Snellius | 592 km (368 mi) | ≈ 30 km (20 mi)? | Width assumed to be approx. that of Vallis Rheita | |
| Mars | Valles Marineris | 3,769 km (2,342 mi) | 200 km (100 mi) | 7 km (4 mi) | |
| Kasei Valles | 1,780 km (1,110 mi) | 200 km (100 mi) | 2–3 km | ||
| Tiu Valles | 1,720 km (1,070 mi) | ||||
| Ares Vallis | 1,700 km (1,100 mi) | ||||
| Vesta | equatorial channels | Possibly up to 1,700 km (1,100 mi) | Length may be as much as the 1790-km circumference of Vesta | ||
| Divalia Fossa | approx. 465 km (290 mi) | ≈ 22 km | Compression fracture from Rheasilvia | ||
| Saturnalia Fossa | at least 365 km (230 mi) | ≈ 39 km | 365 km visible at one point; rest in northern shadow. Compression fracture from Veneneia. | ||
| Europa | ? | ? | More than 20 km (10 mi) | Moon of Jupiter | |
| Tethys | Ithaca Chasma | 2,000 km (1,000 mi) | 100 km (60 mi) | 3–5 km (2–3 mi) | Moon of Saturn. Ithaca span approx. 75% the circumference of the Moon. |
| Charon | Argo Chasma | 700 km (430 mi) | ? | 9 km (6 mi) | Moon of Pluto. Part of a belt of grabens that span most of the circumference of the moon. Only a section was seen on limb of Charon and so exact length uncertain. Not yet officially named. [1] |
| Caleuche Chasma | 400 km (250 mi) | ? | 13 km (8.1 mi) | Depth estimated in the range 10–16 km (6.2–9.9 mi). [2] | |
| Miranda | tectonic grabens | 20 km | 10-20 km | Extensive series of grabens and scarps that cover most of the moon. | |
| Titania | Messina Chasma | 1492 km (900 mi) | 50 km (30 mi) | 2-5 km | Geologically young belt of grabens that cut through craters. Bright, icy material exposed on canyon walls. |
| Pluto | Sleipnir Fossa | 580 km (360 mi) | 5-10 km | ≈3 km (2 mi) | One of the six extensional "spider" fractures, cuts through Tartarus Dorsa . Not yet officially named. |
| Lowell Regio canyons | ≈200 km (120 mi) | 75 km (45 mi) | ≈3-4 km | A series of canyons found very close to the north pole. Not yet officially named. | |
Triton is the largest natural satellite of the planet Neptune, and was the first Neptunian moon to be discovered, on October 10, 1846, by English astronomer William Lassell. It is the only large moon in the Solar System with a retrograde orbit, an orbit in the direction opposite to its planet's rotation. Because of its retrograde orbit and composition similar to Pluto, Triton is thought to have been a dwarf planet, captured from the Kuiper belt.
Pluto is a dwarf planet in the Kuiper belt, a ring of bodies beyond the orbit of Neptune. It is the ninth-largest and tenth-most-massive known object to directly orbit the Sun. It is the largest known trans-Neptunian object by volume, by a small margin, but is less massive than Eris. Like other Kuiper belt objects, Pluto is made primarily of ice and rock and is much smaller than the inner planets. Pluto has only one sixth the mass of Earth's moon, and one third its volume.
Charon, known as (134340) Pluto I, is the largest of the five known natural satellites of the dwarf planet Pluto. It has a mean radius of 606 km (377 mi). Charon is the sixth-largest known trans-Neptunian object after Pluto, Eris, Haumea, Makemake, and Gonggong. It was discovered in 1978 at the United States Naval Observatory in Washington, D.C., using photographic plates taken at the United States Naval Observatory Flagstaff Station (NOFS).
A natural satellite is, in the most common usage, an astronomical body that orbits a planet, dwarf planet, or small Solar System body. Natural satellites are colloquially referred to as moons, a derivation from the Moon of Earth.
A minor-planet moon is an astronomical object that orbits a minor planet as its natural satellite. As of January 2022, there are 457 minor planets known or suspected to have moons. Discoveries of minor-planet moons are important because the determination of their orbits provides estimates on the mass and density of the primary, allowing insights into their physical properties that are generally not otherwise accessible.
Dysnomia (formally (136199) Eris I Dysnomia) is the only known moon of the dwarf planet Eris and is the second-largest known moon of a dwarf planet, after Pluto I Charon. It was discovered in September 2005 by Mike Brown and the Laser Guide Star Adaptive Optics (LGSAO) team at the W. M. Keck Observatory. It carried the provisional designation of S/2005 (2003 UB313) 1 until it was officially named Dysnomia (from the Ancient Greek word Δυσνομία meaning anarchy/lawlessness) in September 2006, after the daughter of the Greek goddess Eris.
Nix is a natural satellite of Pluto, with a diameter of 49.8 km (30.9 mi) across its longest dimension. It was discovered along with Pluto's outermost moon Hydra on 15 May 2005 by astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope, and was named after Nyx, the Greek goddess of the night. Nix is the third moon of Pluto by distance, orbiting between the moons Styx and Kerberos.
Hydra is a natural satellite of Pluto, with a diameter of approximately 51 km (32 mi) across its longest dimension. It is the second-largest moon of Pluto, being slightly larger than Nix. Hydra was discovered along with Nix by astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope on 15 May 2005, and was named after the Hydra, the nine-headed underworld serpent in Greek mythology. By distance, Hydra is the fifth and outermost moon of Pluto, orbiting beyond Pluto's fourth moon Kerberos.
The dwarf planet Pluto has five natural satellites. In order of distance from Pluto, they are Charon, Styx, Nix, Kerberos, and Hydra. Charon, the largest, is mutually tidally locked with Pluto, and is massive enough that Pluto and Charon are sometimes considered a binary dwarf planet.
A dwarf planet is a small planetary-mass object that is in direct orbit around the Sun, massive enough to be gravitationally rounded, but insufficient to achieve orbital dominance like the eight classical planets of the Solar System. The prototypical dwarf planet is Pluto, which was regarded as a planet before the "dwarf" concept was adopted in 2006.
The atmosphere of Pluto consists mainly of nitrogen (N2), with minor amounts of methane (CH4) and carbon monoxide (CO), all of which are vaporized from their ices on Pluto's surface. It contains layered haze, probably consisting of heavier compounds which form from these gases due to high-energy radiation. The atmosphere of Pluto is notable for its strong and not completely understood seasonal changes caused by peculiarities of the orbital and axial rotation of Pluto.
A planetary-mass moon is a planetary-mass object that is also a natural satellite. They are large and ellipsoidal in shape. Moons may be in hydrostatic equilibrium due to tidal or radiogenic heating, in some cases forming a subsurface ocean. Two moons in the Solar System are larger than the planet Mercury : Ganymede and Titan, and seven are larger and more massive than the dwarf planets Pluto and Eris.
Kerberos is a small natural satellite of Pluto, about 19 km (12 mi) in its longest dimension. Kerberos is also the second-smallest moon of Pluto, after Styx. It was the fourth moon of Pluto to be discovered and its existence was announced on 20 July 2011. It was imaged, along with Pluto and its four other moons, by the New Horizons spacecraft in July 2015. The first image of Kerberos from the flyby was released to the public on 22 October 2015.
A planetary surface is where the solid or liquid material of certain types of astronomical objects contacts the atmosphere or outer space. Planetary surfaces are found on solid objects of planetary mass, including terrestrial planets, dwarf planets, natural satellites, planetesimals and many other small Solar System bodies (SSSBs). The study of planetary surfaces is a field of planetary geology known as surface geology, but also a focus on a number of fields including planetary cartography, topography, geomorphology, atmospheric sciences, and astronomy. Land is the term given to non-liquid planetary surfaces. The term landing is used to describe the collision of an object with a planetary surface and is usually at a velocity in which the object can remain intact and remain attached.
REX or Radio Science Experiment is an experiment on the New Horizons space probe to measure properties of the atmosphere of Pluto during the 2015 flyby.
Serenity Chasma is the unofficial name given to a large pull-apart fault on Pluto's moon, Charon. It is part of a series of faults that run along the perimeter of Vulcan Planum. It was discovered by the New Horizons mission, and informally named after the fictitious spaceship, Serenity.
The dwarf planet Pluto has an unusual set of climate zones, due to its atypical axial configuration. Five climate zones are assigned on the dwarf planet: tropics, arctic, tropical arctic, diurnal, and polar. These climate zones are delineated based on astronomically defined boundaries or sub-solar latitudes, which are not associated with the atmospheric circulations on the dwarf planet. Charon, the largest moon of Pluto, is tidally locked with it, and thus has the same climate zone structure as Pluto itself.
Caleuche Chasma is a Y-shaped chasma on Pluto's moon, Charon. Caleuche Chasma is 400 km (250 mi) long. The feature was discovered using stereoscopic processing of New Horizons images. At approximately 13 km (8.1 mi) deep, it is the deepest known feature on the natural satellite, and one of the deepest known canyons in the Solar System.
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See also: Formation and evolution of the Solar System, list of the Solar System's objects by discovery date, by orbit, and by radius or mass, and the Solar System Portal | |||||||||||||||||||||||||