SP Crater is one of about 600 small volcanoes in Arizona's San Francisco Volcanic Field. Scientists think these volcanoes, like the ones on Mars, are hotspots—places where excessive heat below the surface melts the crust. Credit: NASA/GSFC/Nicole Thom ------ Almost Mars In the Grand Canyon, NASA Goddard interns experience a little Mars on Earth. When NASA's Curiosity rover sent back its first pictures of Mount Sharp on Mars, the resemblance to Earth's Grand Canyon was striking. The sculpted landscape at the base of Mount Sharp is filled with buttes, mesas and hills, their thick layers
SP Crater is one of about 600 small volcanoes in Arizona's San Francisco Volcanic Field. Scientists think these volcanoes, like the ones on Mars, are hotspots—places where excessive heat below the surface melts the crust. Credit: NASA/GSFC/Nicole Thom ------ Almost Mars In the Grand Canyon, NASA Goddard interns experience a little Mars on Earth. When NASA's Curiosity rover sent back its first pictures of Mount Sharp on Mars, the resemblance to Earth's Grand Canyon was striking. The sculpted landscape at the base of Mount Sharp is filled with buttes, mesas and hills, their thick layers prominent even from a distance. The two terrains are similar enough, geologically speaking, that planetary scientists can use the Grand Canyon as an analog—a site where they can do field work to help understand the history of Mars. Those similarities drew the interns of the 2012 Lunar and Planetary Science Academy (LPSA) to Arizona to do field work in the Grand Canyon, Meteor Crater and other Mars analog sites. LPSA is a summer internship in planetary science run by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. Highlights from the "Great Crater [and Canyon] Adventure" are presented in this slideshow and in the trip blog at By Elizabeth Zubritsky and Claire Saravia NASA image use policy. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission. Follow us on Twitter Like us on
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