Fly across Mars’ ‘Labyrinth of Night’: Incredible video reveals what it would be like to soar over the surface of the Red Planet

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to fly over the surface of Mars?

Well, now you can get an idea.

That’s because the European Space Agency (ESA) has shared an animation offering a bird’s-eye view of one of the Red Planet’s most stunning sights, Noctis Labyrinthus — Latin for “night labyrinth.”

The video was compiled with the help of images taken by the European Space Agency’s Mars Express spacecraft, which has been mapping the surface of Mars for two decades.

It has taken thousands of photos since arriving at the fourth planet from the Sun in December 2003, including capturing the tattered landscape of canyons that lie between Mars’ Valles Marineris and the massive volcanoes of the Tharsis Bulge.

Scientists took these images and combined them to create an animation showing the 745-mile (1,200 km) maze of valleys that are 18.6 miles (30 km) wide and 3.7 miles (6 km) deep.

By comparison, the Grand Canyon in Arizona is 18 miles (29 kilometers) wide at its widest point and 1.1 miles (1.8 kilometers) at its deepest point.

Such is the sheer size of Noctis Labyrinthus that it runs the length of Italy or the Rhine River from its source in the Alps to the North Sea.

It is located at the western end of the Marineres Valley, a stunning feature known as the Grand Canyon of Mars.

Scientists say that the maze of valleys was formed when the Martian crust swelled millions of years ago as a result of tectonic and volcanic activity.

“As the crust in the Tharsis Province bulged, it extended into parts of the surrounding terrain, creating fissures several kilometers deep and leaving blocks trapped within the resulting trenches,” the European Space Agency said.

In addition to relying on the Mars Express rover’s high-resolution stereo camera, experts also had to use topographic information from a digital terrain model to help create a 3D view of the landscape.

The result is an animated video that gives the viewer the feeling of being in a helicopter while exploring another planet in our solar system.

The video reveals fascinating landscape features of Noctis Labyrinthus, including what are known as ‘grabens’.

These are parts of the planet’s crust that have collapsed.

They can be found on land as well, including Canyonlands National Park in Utah.

“Intense volcanic activity in the nearby Tharsis region is responsible for the formation of these features,” the European Space Agency said.

“This volcanic activity caused large areas of the Martian crust to curve upward and become tectonically stretched and compressed, causing it to thin, crack and subside.”

The main goal of the Mars Express spacecraft, which was ESA’s first foray to another planet, is to search for evidence of water beneath the surface of the Red Planet.

It also carried a small lander called Beagle 2 when it was sent to Mars in 2003, but it was lost on arrival.

So far, the orbiter has discovered enough water ice in the polar caps to create a global ocean 36 feet (11 meters) deep, revealing vast plains of permafrost around the red planet’s south pole.

Mars Express also found the highest clouds ever seen above any planetary surface at an altitude of 62 miles (100 kilometers).

Other human spacecraft that have imaged Noctis Labyrinthus include NASA’s Viking 1 orbiter, which captured a wide view of the region in 1980.