Where is the highest mountain in our Solar System? | Cool Cosmos Where is the highest mountain in our Solar System? The highest mountain and volcano in the Solar System is on the planet Mars. It is called Olympus Mons and is 16 miles (24 kilometers) high which makes it about three times higher than Mt. Everest. In addition to being very tall, it is also very wide (340 miles or 550 kilometers) and covers an area larger than the entire chain of Hawaiian islands. Olympus Mons is a very flat mountain which slopes by only 2 to 5 degrees. It is a shield volcano built up by eruptions of lava. Continue the conversation on Wikijunior:Solar System/Mars - Wikibooks, open books for an open world Wikijunior:Solar System/Mars This is the latest reviewed version , checked on 19 March 2016. (+) Quality: minimal Mars is red because of rust in the surface rocks A volcano on Mars called Olympus Mons is the highest mountain in our Solar System. Mars has polar ice caps that look like the ones on Earth . Mars has ancient river beds where scientists think liquid water flowed millions or billions of years ago.

The Tooting crater on Mars was named after a suburb in London because the discoverer "thought [his] mum and brother would get a kick out of having their home town paired with a land form on Mars". Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun. It is called a terrestrial planet because its outer layers are made of rocky material like the Earth. Contents How big is the planet?[ edit ] Comparison of the size of Mars and the Earth Mars is the second smallest of the eight major planets in the Solar System. Only Mercury is smaller. It is nearly 7,000 kilometres (km) wide; just over half the width of the Earth. Its volume is about 15% of the Earth. Since a lot of the Earth is covered by water, the total surface area of the Mars is nearly as large as all of the land on the Earth. It is possible that its size may eventually permit human colonies. What is its surface like?[ edit ] A panorama view from the Mars rover Spirit. The surface of Mars is a lot like a desert on Earth; it is very dry and dusty, but it is also very cold. There are a lot of loose rocks and dunes of fine sand.

Crater impacts mark the surface, but these are not as common as on the Moon. One of the craters is the huge Hellas Planitia. It is about half the size of the continental United States. The southern half of the planet has more craters than in the north. The south is also higher in elevation. An overhead view of Olympus Mons, the highest mountain in the Solar System. There is an area on Mars called the Tharsis Bulge, which has four huge volcanoes. These volcanoes have not erupted for millions of years. The largest volcano is called Olympus Mons. It is 27 km tall, making it the highest mountain in the Solar System; more than three times higher than Mount Everest on Earth. It is 625 km across and takes up an area as big as the US state of Arizona. Mars also has a huge canyon called the Valles Marineris. It is much bigger than the Grand Canyon on Earth. It is 4000 km long, up to 7 km deep and up to 200 km wide. Scientists think that when the Tharsis Bulge was created, the surface of Mars cracked to form the Valles Marineris.

Like the Earth, Mars has ice caps at its poles. However, they are made from frozen carbon dioxide as well as ice. During the Martian winter at each pole, the cap grows as carbon dioxide from the atmosphere freezes. The cap shrinks again during the Martian summer. As on Earth, when it is winter at one pole it is summer at the other. In some places, there are dry channels that look like they were made by running water. So, a long time ago Mars may have had lakes and streams made of water. Now all of the water is frozen into ice under the surface. There is an atmosphere on Mars, but it is very thin. There is also much more carbon dioxide in it than oxygen. (Oxygen is the gas we need when we breathe in; carbon dioxide the gas we get rid of when we breathe out.) So, we would need spacesuits to visit Mars. The atmosphere helps protect the surface from smaller meteorites. When Mars comes closest to the Sun, the atmosphere can stir up storms of dust. Some of these storms are gigantic; they can cover the entire planet in clouds of dust. Dust storms on Mars can last for hundreds of days, with wind speeds of up to 200 kilometres per hour.

Huge storms like these have been seen from the Earth through telescopes. Deimos How long is a day and year on this planet?[ edit ] One day on Mars is only 39 minutes and 35 seconds longer than a day on Earth (1.026 Earth days). A year on Mars is almost two Earth years long (687 Earth days). Much like the Earth, the axis of rotation of Mars is tilted at an angle. This tilt causes seasons on Mars as it travels around the Sun. Summer occurs on the half of the planet that is tilted toward the Sun, and winter on the other half. After half a Martian year has passed, the seasons are reversed. But these seasons are about twice as long as on Earth. What is it made of?[ edit ] The outer, rocky surface of Mars is called the crust. Most of the crust is made from basalt, a type of rock made when lava grows cold. Like the Earth, Mars has a thick layer of rock below the crust called the mantle. The mantle is much hotter than the crust, and the mantle rock is partly molten. But the crust on Mars has grown thick, so the lava from the mantle no longer reaches the surface.

There are volcanoes on Mars, but they are no longer active. At the center of Mars is a core made of the metals iron and nickel. If Mars were the same size as the Earth, the core of Mars would be smaller than the Earth's core. So a larger amount of Mars is made out of rock. Because rock is lighter than the metals in the core, Mars has a lower density than the Earth. How heavy would I be on Mars?[ edit ] Detailed picture of Mars If you were on Mars, you would be lighter, as Mars' gravity only has a force about two fifths as strong as the that of Earth's. You could lift objects that weigh almost three times as much compared to similar objects here on the Earth. You could jump up almost three times higher, and it would take much longer to fall to the ground from the same height. Even though it looks as though you would be like a comic-book hero on Mars, there are some things you couldn't do. Although a big rock would weigh less and you could pick it up, it would still have the same mass. If you tried to catch it, it would knock you over, and if it landed on you it would crush you.

A car on the surface of Mars would need the same amount of power to speed up, although going uphill would be less of a problem. It may, however, need more room to stop. Because of the reduced gravity a vehicle would not "grip" the ground on Mars as strongly, but the constant mass would keep the vehicle moving just as strongly, making it easy to go into a skid. Who was it named after?[ edit ] In Roman mythology, Mars was the god of war and agriculture. The planet Mars was named this because the planet looks red like blood, from rust in its surface rocks. Who discovered Mars?[ edit ] Nobody knows, but the earliest records we know of were by Ancient Egyptians, more than 4000 years ago, noting Mars' movement. On one pharaoh's tomb, named Seti I, Mars is drawn on the ceiling. The Babylonians (in the Middle East), Chinese, and Greeks also studied Mars more than 3000 years ago. The Greeks learned about Mars from the Babylonians, and since the Babylonians called it their god of war, named Nergal, the Greeks called it their own god of war, Ares.

Exploration of Mars was first attempted in 1960, with Mars 1. It failed, along with several other missions by the Soviet Union in the 1960s. The first successful mission to Mars was in 1964, by Mariner 4, by the U.S. Most of the other Mariner missions to Mars were successful. The last Mariner mission to Mars, Mariner 9, got there in the midst of a dust storm, and orbited the planet for several months before it could get a good look at the surface. So far, all these missions were flybys or orbiters. The first spacecraft to land on Mars was Viking 1 in 1976. Viking 2 landed 19 days later. Together, they took many good pictures of Mars' surface. Viking 1 lander site (February 11, 1978). Viking 1 lander site (1st color, July 21, 1976). Viking 2 lander site (1st color, September 5, 1976).

Viking 2 lander site (September 25, 1977). Frost at Viking 2 site (May 18, 1979). Martian sunset over Chryse Planitia at Viking 1 site (August 20, 1976). Olympus Mons: Giant Mountain of Mars Olympus Mons: Giant Mountain of Mars By Nola Taylor Redd, Space.com Contributor | March 8, 2013 04:57pm ET MORE A computer-generated view of Olympus Mons. Credit: NASA/MOLA Science Team/ O. de Goursac, Adrian Lark Olympus Mons is the largest volcano in the solar system. The massive Martian mountain towers high above the surrounding plains of the red planet, and may be biding its time until the next eruption. Characteristics Found in the Tharsis Montes region near the Martian equator, Olympus Mons is one of a dozen large volcanoes, many of which are ten to a hundred times taller than their terrestrial counterparts.

The tallest of them all towers 16 miles (25 kilometers) above the surrounding plains and stretches across 374 miles (624 km) — roughly the size of the state of Arizona. Olympus Mons compared to Arizona. Credit: NASA In comparison, Hawaii's Mauna Loa, the tallest volcano on Earth, rises 6.3 miles (10 km) above the sea floor (but its peak is only 2.6 miles above sea level). The volume contained by Olympus Mons is about a hundred times that of Mauna Loa, and the Hawaiian island chain that houses the Earthly volcano could fit inside its Martian counterpart. Olympus Mons rises three times higher than Earth's highest mountain, Mount Everest , whose peak is 5.5 miles above sea level. Olympus Mons is a shield volcano. Rather than violently spewing molten material, shield volcanoes are created by lava slowly flowing down their sides. As a result, the mountain has a low, squat appearance, with an average slope of only 5 percent. Six collapsed craters, known as calderas, stack on top of one another to create a depression at the summit that is 53 miles wide (85 km).

As magma chambers beneath the calderas emptied of lava, most likely during an eruption, the chambers collapsed, no longer able to support the weight of the ground above. A cliff, or escarpment, surrounds the outer edge of the volcano, reaching as high as 6 miles (10 km) above the surrounding area. (The cliff alone is about as tall as Mauna Loa.) A wide depression surrounds the base of the volcano as its immense weight presses into the crust. Olympus Mons is still a relatively young volcano. Although it has taken billions of years to form, some regions of the mountain may be only a few million years old, relatively young in the lifetime of the solar system. As such, Olympus Mons may still be an active volcano with the potential to erupt. The tallest volcano in the solar system may also house rock glaciers — rocky debris frozen in ice. Snow and ice deposits above the base of the shield could result in such glaciers. Water-ice insulated by surface dust may exist near the top of the volcano. The tops of these glaciers may host ridges, furrows, and lobes, and be covered by rocks and boulders, and could be as young as four million years old.

Forming a giant Why would such a huge volcano form on Mars but not on Earth? Scientists think that the lower surface gravity of the red planet, combined with higher eruption rates, allowed for the lava on Mars to pile up higher. The presence and absence of tectonic plates could also play an important role in the different kinds of volcanoes. The hot spots of lava under the crust remain in the same location on both planets. On Earth, however, the movement of the crust prevents the steady buildup of lava. The Hawaiian Islands , for instance, formed as a plate drifted over a hot spot. Each eruption created a small island in a different spot. But Mars has very limited plate movement . Both the hot spot and the crust remain unmoving. When lava flows to the surface, it continues to pile up in a single spot. Instead of a chain of volcanic islands, large volcanoes such as Olympus Mons form. In fact, three other large volcanoes near Olympus Mons are similarly gigantic; if only one of the four volcanoes in the region existed, it would be the tallest feature in the solar system. The volcanoes in Tharsis Montes are so large that they tower above the seasonal Martian dust storms.

Italian astronomer Giovanni Schiaparelli , who studied the Martian surface intensively in the late 19th century, observed the enormous features from Earth using an 8-inch (22 centimeter) telescope. When NASA's Mariner 9 arrived at the red planet in 1971, it was able to pick out the tops of the volcanoes above the storms. — Nola Taylor Redd, SPACE.com Contributor Related: The Highest Mountains in the Solar System | BaldHiker The Highest Mountains in the Solar System Posted by Paul Steele | Nov 17, 2010 | Reference | It’s not just our own beautiful planet that’s blessed with mountains, but, that being said, I think it will be a long time before explorers will be aiming to climb the highest mountains on other planets that share our sun. That doesn’t stop us from taking a look at them, just as many only looked on at Everest until not so long ago. Lets take a look at some of the highest points around our Solar System. Please note that we base our mountains on Earth as the distance above sea level when judging height.

Most approximate measurements for planets/moons other than Earth are used using the average height of land on the planet/moon as a whole. Olympus Mons – Mars Height. 27 km (17 miles) Yes that is huge isn’t it? Standing at approximately 3 times the height of Everest, Olympus Mons is the highest Mountain in the Solar System. Boosaule Montes – IO (One of Jupiter’s Moons) Height. 16 km (10 miles) Unlike our moon, IO is extremely active and volcanic. Eruptions have been seen sending plumes over 500 km into space. The highest of all the volcanos here is Boosaule Montes. A place no man will be setting foot on I fear. It is situated in the bottom of this picture. Maxwell Montes – Venus Height. 11 km m (6.8 miles) Standing as the highest point on Venus, Maxwell Montes is hard to see as mountain in itself. To put in perspective it is 850 km (530 miles) long and 700 km (435 miles) wide. The radar picture below shows its Western side.

The crater you can see (Cleopatra) is 100km in diameter. Beta – Earth’s Moon (Leibnitz Range) Height – Estimates up to 11 km (6.8 miles) Near the South Pole of our very own moon lies Beta. It is higher than Everest is above Sea level according to most estimates. Now there is a challenge for an astronoaut with a trekking mind? Verona Rupes – Miranda (A moon of Uranus) The Highest known cliffs in the Solar System it is not exactly known how they were formed but one can only ‘try’ and imagine standing at the top of them or looking up at them. They range from 5 km (3 miles) to a staggering 10km (6.2 miles) in height. Now that is one abseil yes? Hope you have a head for heights. These are just a few of the many heights to be explored out there. I am sure there are many more to be found and explored in more detail. Even the sights of them will become clearer. I for one am more than happy travelling up hills and mountains on our own beautiful planet.

But we can sit back in awe at what we know and what we can discover. Subscribe To Our Newsletter The Tallest Volcano on Mars and the Deepest Asteroid Crater Home » Astronomy » Tallest Mountain on Mars Highest and Lowest Points on Mars A volcano is the tallest mountain - An asteroid crater is the deepest basin Spectacular events determined the highest and lowest elevation points on Mars. The lowest point was blasted by an enormous asteroid impact which formed the Hellas Impact Crater . The highest point was built by repeated eruptions of Olympus Mons , the largest volcano in our solar system. Although Mars is a smaller planet than Earth, the heights and depths of these features are enormous in comparison. Topographic Map of Mars The image above is a colorized topographic map of Mars. This Mercator projection map shows low elevations as a deep blue color and high elevations as a white color (see elevation scale below). The map was prepared by NASA and is based on data from the Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter, an instrument on the Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft. The highest point on Mars is the Olympus Mons Volcano (marked by a flag with the letter "H").

The peak of Olympus Mons is 21,229 meters (69,649 feet) above the Mars areoid (a reference datum similar to Earth's sea level). The lowest point is within the Hellas Impact Crater (marked by a flag with the letter "L"). The lowest point in the Hellas Impact Crater is 8,200 meters (26,902 feet) below the Mars areoid. Detail maps of Olympus Mons Volcano and the Hellas Impact Crater are shown below. "Sea Level" on Mars? On Earth we use "sea level" as a reference datum. The elevation of mountains are given in feet above sea level and the depths of the ocean are expressed in feet below sea level. On Mars there is no sea level to serve as a reference. Instead a substitute datum is use. This datum is known as the Mars areoid. The Mars areoid represents an equipotential surface of the Goddard Mars Gravity Model. The Mars areoid is an imaginary sphere with a center that coincides with the center of Mars and a radius of 3,396,000 meters.

We can think of it as a reference elevation, similar to the zero elevation on Earth being mean sea level. (The radius used for the Mars areoid is very close to the average radius of Mars along its equator. That value is 3,396,196 meters.) To create the Mars topographic map, data from the Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter as used to calculate the radius of Mars at millions of observation points across surface of the planet. Martian elevation values were obtained by subtracting the radius of the Mars areoid from the radius of Mars at each observation point. The resulting elevations were used to produce the topographic map. Olympus Mons Volcano - Highest Point on Mars Olympus Mons volcano is the highest point on Mars at an elevation of 21,229 meters (69,649 feet) above the Mars areoid (a reference datum similar to Earth's sea level). It is also the highest mountain in the solar system and the solar system's largest volcano. In this image, Olympus Mons is the largest volcano. Lava flows from Olympus Mons and its neighboring volcanoes have resurfaced the planet in this area.

These lava flows are not heavily cratered, revealing that the eruptions which formed them occurred at a point in the planet's history that was after the heavy asteroid bombardment. NASA Image. Oblique view of Olympus Mons from the Mars Global Surveyor Mission. Vertical image of Olympus Mons from the Viking Orbiter Mission. More About Olympus Mons Olympus Mons is an enormous volcano. It stands about 25 kilometers (15.5 miles) higher than its surrounding landscape and it is over 500 kilometers (310 miles) in width. The map above has been enhanced to make topographic features more obvious. On that map, Olympus Mons looks steeper than it actually is. Olympus Mons is a gently sloping shield volcano, much like the volcanoes that make up the Hawaiian Islands. If you were placed on the flank of Olympus Mons and not told that you were standing on the slope of the volcano, you could probably look around and think that you were standing on a gently sloping plain. You would see a gentle slope upwards in one direction and a gentle slope down in the opposite direction.

If you were placed on the rim of the summit crater and looked down the slope of the volcano, your horizon would be located on the volcano's flank. The volcano is that gently sloping and that immense. Astrogeologists believe that plate tectonics processes on Mars are no longer active. Olympus Mons is thought to be located on a stationary "plate" over a deep hotspot. The stationary nature of the plate has kept the Olympus Mons fixed above the hotspot, allowing repeated eruptions to build it to a very great height. In the vertical image from the Viking Orbiter Mission above a sharp change in slope can be seen as a light area that almost completely surrounds the volcano. This light area marks a steep cliff or escarpment about one to four kilometers in height. The origin of this escarpment is debated but remains unknown. Ideas of it being a product of faulting, erosion, landsliding and uplift have all been proposed. Hellas Impact Crater - Lowest Point on Mars Hellas Impact Crater (also known as Hellas Planitia) is an enormous impact crater in the southern hemisphere of Mars.

It is about 2,300 kilometers (1,400 miles) in diameter and about 9 kilometers (5 miles) deep. It is the largest impact crater on the planet. NASA Image. Hellas Impact Crater Although the Hellas Impact Crater usually receives all of the credit for being the lowest point on Mars, the honor actually should go to a younger and much smaller impact crater located deep within the Hellas Impact Crater. It is marked in the image above by a red flag. The asteroid that produced this crater blasted through the floor of the Hellas Crater to produce the lowest elevation on Mars. NASA Image. Find it on Geology.com The Tallest Mountains in the Solar System | Science | Smithsonian The Tallest Mountains in the Solar System Mount Everest is a just a peewee when compared with such giants as Olympus Mons on Mars smithsonian.com January 9, 2012 Mauna Loa (as seen from nearby Mauna Kea) is tall enough to have snow, at least when the volcano isn't erupting (courtesy of flickr user superfluity) If asked to name the tallest mountain on Earth, most people would answer Mount Everest.

They’d be wrong–Everest is the highest peak on the planet, but mountains are measured from their base to their peak, and Everest’s base sits far above sea level on the Tibetan Plateau. And when you start looking at the tallest (known) mountains in the solar system, Mount Everest, at only 2.3 to 2.9 miles tall (depending on where you decide the mountain’s base is located), doesn’t even make the list: (1) Olympus Mons - 15.5 miles The largest volcano on Mars is also the solar system’s tallest mountain. Measuring 374 miles in diameter, it covers about the same amount of land as the state of Arizona. Olympus Mons is located near three other volcanoes known as the Tharsis Montes. The volcanoes in this area are all 10 to 100 times bigger than Earth’s largest volcanoes. They can get this big because, unlike on Earth, there are no plate tectonics on Mars that can drag a volcano away from its hotspot–they just sit in one volcanically active place and grow bigger and bigger.

(2) Rheasilvea Mons – 13.2 miles Rheasilvea, on the asteroid Vesta, sits at the center of a 300-mile wide crater. The asteroid is currently the subject of a close study by the spacecraft Dawn , which will continue to circle it through the first half of 2012 before moving on for a rendezvous with the asteroid Ceres in 2015. Rheasilvea Mons sometimes gets named the tallest peak in the solar system, but even with satellites and spacecraft monitoring faraway planets, moons and asteroids, measuring these things is rather difficult (which should explain why the numbers for heights given here may differ from what you’ve seen elsewhere–sources often disagree). (3) Equatorial Ridge of Iapetus – 12.4 miles Saturn’s moon of Iapetus has a couple of weird features. The first is a huge crater that gives the moon the appearance of the Death Star from Star Wars. The second is an equatorial ridge, with some peaks reaching over 12 miles high, that makes Iapetus look like a walnut .

Scientists aren’t quite sure how the ridge formed, but they have hypothesized that it was either the remnant of the moon’s earlier oblate shape, icy material pushed up from beneath the moon’s surface or even the remainder of a collapsed ring. (4) Ascreaus Mons – 11.3 miles This volcano on Mars is the tallest of the three volcanoes known as the Tharsis Montes, which appear in a straight line near Olympus Mons. Ascreaus Mons has a central caldera that is 2.1 miles deep. It was first spotted by the Mariner 9 spacecraft in 1971 and then named the North Spot , as it appeared as a spot in a dust storm photographed by the spacecraft. Later images revealed it was a volcano and the spot was remaned. (5) Boösaule Montes – 10.9 miles Boösaule Montes is a collection of three mountains on Io, a moon of Jupiter, all connected by a raised plain. The mountain termed “South” is the tallest of the three. One side of the mountain has such a steep slope, 40 degrees, that scientists think that it was the site of a huge landslide.

(6) Arsia Mons – 9.9 miles This is second tallest volcano from the Tharsis Montes on Mars. Based on the discovery of certain geological features on the volcano, scientists think that Arsia Mons may be home to glaciers . (7) Pavonis Mons – 8.7 miles Pavonis Mons is the shortest of the three volcanoes that make up the Tharsis Montes, and it has also been suggested to be home to glaciers. (8) Elysium Mons - 7.8 miles This Martian volcano is a big fish in a little pond, metaphorically speaking. It is the tallest volcano in the Elysium Planitia , a region in Mars’ Eastern Hemisphere that is the second largest volcanic system on the planet. (9) Maxwell Montes - 6.8 miles This mountain range on Venus stretches for 530 miles. Scientists aren’t sure how the mountains formed , but they think they are home to large amounts of fool’s gold (iron pyrite).

(10) Mauna Loa – 5.7 miles Earth just squeaks into this top ten list with this active volcano on the island of Hawaii (remember, mountains are measured from their base to their peak, and Mauna Loa’s base is far beneath the ocean surface). Mauna Loa is one of many active and dormant volcanoes created by a hotspot beneath the Pacific Ocean plate. As the plate moves over the hotspot , which has been active for at least 30 million years, new islands begin to form and old ones, no longer being built up through volcanic activity, whither wither away. Like this article? 10 Tallest Mountains In The Solar System 10 Tallest Mountains In The Solar System Posted on by jia Rising sharply from a narrow summit area, these majestic mountains stand prominently above their surroundings. However, many amongst us have yet to learn the difference between the tallest and the highest mountains. Although, it sounds the same and we often confuse the two but there is a difference. The tallest mountains have the measures from the base of the mountain to its peak, whereas the highest mountains have the measures from the sea level to the peak. See the difference?

Looking our planet, into the solar system there are many mountains, peaks and ridges way taller than the mountains on the planet Earth. These extraterrestrial mountains may be a result of crater impact, high volcanic activity etc., none of which we would want happening in our home planet. 10. Makalu The fifth highest mountain in the world above sea level at an altitude of 8,481 m above sea level and located at the Nepal-China border. The Makalu has a unique shape of a four sided pyramid and lies only 19 km southeast of Mount Everest. The first attempts to climb the mountain began in 1954. However, the first successful ascent of the summit was made in 1955 during a French expedition by Lionel Terray and Jean Couzy. 9. Lhotse At 8,516 m above sea level, Lhotse is situated at the borders of China and Nepal and is connected to the Everest through the southern mountain pass. The south face of Lhotse has seen many failed attempts, fatalities with a very few successful ascents.

The main summit of Lhotse was first climbed in 1956 by a Swiss team of Ernst Reiss and Fritz Luchsinger. However, the summit of Lhotse Middle remained the highest unclimbed point on Earth, until 2001 when a Russian Expedition finally made a first ascent. 8. Kangchenjunga The third highest mountain of the world at 8,586 m above sea level, Kangchenjunga is located at the India-Nepal border in the Himalayan Range. The five peaks are collectively called the Kangchenjunga meaning “The Five Treasures of Snows”. The earliest attempts of reaching the summit started in 1848 and it was not until 1955 that Joe Brown and George Band made the first ascent. The landscape of Kangchenjunga is shared by four countries namely China, India, Nepal and Bhutan. 7. K-2 The second highest mountain in the world, K-2 or Godwin Austin has a peak elevation of 8,611 m above sea level and lies at the northwest of the Karakoram Range.

Known as the savage mountain due its high fatality rate; K-2 is situated at the border of China and Pakistan. Since it is almost impossible to climb the K-2 from China, it is majorly climbed from Pakistan. K-2 was named by Thomas Montgomerie, while he surveyed the Karakoram and labeled its prominent peaks as K-1, K-2, K-3, K-4 and K-5. The earliest attempts to climb the savage mountain began in 1902 and the first successful ascent was finally made in 1954 by Lino Lacedelli and Achille Compagnoni in an Italian Expedition. One interesting fact about K-2 is that no one has ever attempted to climb the summit during the winter season. 6. Mount Everest The world’s highest mountain rises in the eastern Himalayas between Nepal and Tibet. A young limestone mountain not yet worn by erosion, it has two peaks, one of which reaches a height of 8,848 m. Everest is covered in snow except for its bare, gale-swept summits. Many glaciers feed rivers that rise near the Everest base.

The mountain got its name in 1865, in the honor of Sir George Everest, the British surveyor general of India who established the location and the approximate altitude of the mountain. Its Tibetan name Chomolungma means “goddess mother of the world”. Heartburn No More ™: Heartburn Cure *top Affiliate Makes $127k+/mon =”550″ height=”411″ /> Climbing attempts began in the early 1920s, and several expeditions came within 300 m of the top. Success came with the development of special equipment to cope with the low oxygen supply, high winds and extreme cold. On May 29, 1953, Edmund Hillary of New Zealand and Tenzing Norgay, a Nepalese Sherpa tribseman became the first successful climbers of the Everest. 5. Mauna Kea The tallest mountain in the world, Mauna Kea is a large dormant volcano located on the north central Hawaii Island, about 43 km northwest of Hilo.

Measuring 4,205 m high above sea level, Mauna Kea extends an additional 5,547 km to the ocean floor. Thus, from base to peak it is the tallest individual mountain in the world. The Mauna Kea was last active more than 4,000 years ago; its snow covered cone is used for skiing and is also the site of the Mauna Kea Observatory, the highest astronomical observatory in the world. The mountain’s upper slopes have caves where ancient Hawaiians dug basalt for tools. The lower slopes support large cattle ranches and coffee plantations. The mountain is regarded in the Hawaiian legend as the home of the goddess Poliahu, the fire goddess of Mauna Kea. 4. Maxwell Montes Rising to a height of 11,000 m, Maxwell Montes is the highest point on the surface of planet Venus. Located on the northern highlands of Ishtar Terra, the origin of the mountain belt is controversial with several suggesting its formation. The Maxwell Montes was discovered in 1967 by scientists at the American Arecibo Radio Telescope in Puerto Rico.

The mountain is named after the mathematician and physician James Clerk Maxwell, whose works in radio waves made the radar and ultimately resulted in the exploration of the surface of planet Venus. 3. Boösaule Montes Boösaule Montes is known to be the tallest non-volcanic mountain of the Solar System. It is located at Io, the fourth largest satellite of the Solar System and innermost satellite of the planet Jupiter. The geology of Io is quite interesting as it contains about 400 active volcanoes and contains over 150 mountains on its surface. The Boösaule Montes is one such mountain that lies on the northwest of the large Pele plume deposit and reaches an elevation of 17,500 m. The mountain got its name from a cave in the Greek Mythology where Epaphus, son of Zeus, was born. 2. Equatorial Ridge Located on the dark hemisphere of the third largest satellite, Iapetus, of the planet Saturn, the Equatorial Ridge runs along the center of the hemisphere with some isolated peaks as high as 20 km. The Equatorial Ridge was discovered by Cassini spacecraft on December 31, 2004.

The formation of the ridge is still debated upon; however, it is agreed that the ridge is ancient as it is heavily cratered. The prominent bulge of the ridge gives Iapetus a walnut like shape. 1. Olympus Mons So far the tallest mountain discovered in our Solar System, Olympus Mons stands 24 km above a smooth plain on the planet Mars. Approximately three times taller than the Mount Everest, Olympus Mons was discovered by the US space probe, Mariner 9, in 1971 when it sent pictures of four immense volcanic mountains. The tallest of these shield volcanoes, Mons Olympus, dwarfs the largest such feature on the Earth, The Mauna Kea. The extraordinary height of the Olympus Mons owes to the absence of mobile tectonic plates, allowing the mountain to remain fixed on a stationary hotspot and continues discharging lava till the mountain reaches a considerable height. The base of the mountain pushes down 2km deep into the crust each year, owing to the enormous weight pressing down the Martian crust. zp8497586rq If you like this post, you may also like to follow us on Twitter , or subscribe to this blog by Email or RSS feed!

BBC Solar System - Olympus Mons is the Solar System's largest volcano Mariner reveals Mars A series of missions finds astonishing features on the Red Planet. The unmanned Mariner missions gradually revealed Mars's extreme landforms. Perhaps most impressive was Olympus Mons, a volcano three times the size of Mount Everest. About Olympus Mons Olympus Mons (pronunciation: /əˌlɪmpəs ˈmɒnz, oʊ-, -ˈmɒns/;Latin for Mount Olympus) is a very large shield volcano on the planet Mars. By one measure, it has a height of nearly 22 km (13.6 mi). Olympus Mons stands about two and a half times as tall as Mount Everest's height above sea level. It is the youngest of the large volcanoes on Mars, having formed during Mars's Hesperian Period. It is currently the largest volcano discovered in the Solar System and had been known to astronomers since the late 19th century as the albedo feature Nix Olympica (Latin for "Olympic Snow"). Its mountainous nature was suspected well before space probes confirmed its identity as a mountain.

The volcano is located in Mars's western hemisphere at approximately 18°39′N 226°12′E﻿ / ﻿18.65°N 226.2°E﻿ / 18.65; 226.2, just off the northwestern edge of the Tharsis bulge. The western portion of the volcano lies in the Amazonis quadrangle (MC-8) and the central and eastern portions in the adjoining Tharsis quadrangle (MC-9). Two impact craters on Olympus Mons have been assigned provisional names by the International Astronomical Union.

They are the 15.6 km (9.7 mi)-diameter Karzok crater (18°25′N 131°55′W﻿ / ﻿18.417°N 131.917°W﻿ / 18.417; -131.917) and the 10.4 km (6.5 mi)-diameter Pangboche crater (17°10′N 133°35′W﻿ / ﻿17.167°N 133.583°W﻿ / 17.167; -133.583). The craters are notable for being two of several suspected source areas for shergottites, the most abundant class of Martian meteorites. The Tallest Mountain In The Solar System / Olympus Mons / Mount Olympus / Planet Mars - YouTube The Tallest Mountain In The Solar System / Olympus Mons / Mount Olympus / Planet Mars Want to watch this again later? Sign in to add this video to a playlist. Need to report the video? Sign in to report inappropriate content.

Rating is available when the video has been rented. This feature is not available right now. Please try again later. Published on Aug 23, 2015 The Tallest Mountain In The Solar System - Olympus Mons - Mount Olympus: Olympus Mons /ɵˌlɪmpəs ˈmɒnz/ (Latin for Mount Olympus) is a very large shield volcano on the planet Mars. By one measure, it has a height of nearly 25 km (16 mi). Olympus Mons stands almost three times as tall as Mount Everest's height above sea level. It is the youngest of the large volcanoes on Mars, having formed during Mars's Amazonian Period. It is currently the biggest discovered Volcano in the Solar System, and had been known to astronomers since the late 19th century as the albedo feature Nix Olympica (Latin for "Olympic Snow"). Its mountainous nature was suspected well before space probes confirmed its identity as a mountain. The volcano is located in Mars's western hemisphere at approximately 18.65°N 226.2°E, just off the northwestern edge of the Tharsis bulge.

The western portion of the volcano lies in the Amazonis quadrangle (MC-8) and the central and eastern portions in the adjoining Tharsis quadrangle (MC-9). Two impact craters on Olympus Mons have been assigned provisional names by the International Astronomical Union. They are the 15.6 km (9.7 mi)-diameter Karzok crater (18°25′N 131°55′W) and the 10.4 km (6.5 mi)-diameter Pangboche crater (17°10′N 133°35′W). The craters are notable for being two of several suspected source areas for shergottites, the most abundant class of Martian meteorites. Description: As a shield volcano, Olympus Mons resembles in its morphology the large volcanoes making up the Hawaiian Islands. The edifice is about 600 km (370 mi) wide. Because the mountain is so large, with complex structure at its edges, allocating a height to the structure is difficult.

It stands 21 km (13 mi) above the Mars global datum, and its local relief, from the foot of the cliffs which form its margin to the northwest to its peak, is nearly 22 km (14 mi) (a little over twice the height of Mauna Kea as measured from its base on the ocean floor). The total elevation change from the plains of Amazonis Planitia, over 1,000 km (620 mi) to the northwest, to the summit approaches 26 km (16 mi). The summit of the mountain has six nested calderas (collapse craters) forming an irregular depression 60 km (37 mi) × 80 km (50 mi) across and up to 3.2 km (2.0 mi) deep. The volcano's outer edge consists of an escarpment, or cliff, up to 8 km (5.0 mi) tall, a feature unique among the shield volcanoes of Mars. Olympus Mons covers an area approximately the size of Arizona, or about 295,254 km2 (113,998 sq mi).

Being a shield volcano, Olympus Mons has a very low profile. The average slope on the volcano's flanks is only 5°. Slopes are highest near the middle part of the flanks and grow shallower toward the base, giving the flanks a concave upward profile. The shape of Olympus Mons is distinctly unsymmetrical. Its flanks are shallower and extend out further from the summit in the northwestern direction than they do to the southeast. The volcano's shape and profile have been likened to a "circus tent" held up by a single pole that is shifted off center. Because of the size of Olympus Mons and its shallow slopes, an observer standing on the Martian surface would be unable to view the entire profile of the volcano, even from a great distance. The curvature of the planet and the volcano itself would obscure such a synoptic view. Similarly, an observer near the summit would be unaware of standing on a high mountain, as the slope of the volcano would extend beyond the horizon, a mere 3 kilometers away. The typical atmospheric pressure at the top of Olympus Mons is 72 pascal, about 12% of the average Martian surface pressure of 600 pascal.

Both are exceedingly low by terrestrial standards. By comparison, the atmospheric pressure at the summit of Mount Everest is 32,000 pascals, or about 32% of Earth's sea level pressure. Even so, high-altitude orographic clouds frequently drift over the Olympus Mons summit, and airborne Martian dust is still present. Although the average Martian surface atmospheric pressure is less than one percent of Earth's, the much lower gravity on Mars increases the atmosphere's scale height; in other words, Mars's atmosphere is expansive and does not drop off in density with height as sharply as Earth's. Olympus Mons is an unlikely landing location for automated space probes in the near future. The high elevations preclude parachute-assisted landings because of insufficient atmospheric thickness to slow the spacecraft down. Moreover, Olympus Mons stands in one of the dustiest regions of Mars. A mantle of fine dust covers much of the terrain, obscuring the underlying bedrock (rock samples might be hard to come by). The dust layer would also likely cause severe maneuvering problems for rovers. JOIN VSP GROUP PARTNER PROGRAM: Category Olympus Mons Subscribe To This Site's Feed Olympus Mons Olympus Mons is the highest known mountain in our solar system.

It is a huge shield volcano located in the western hemisphere of Mars and covers an area the size of Arizona! On the outer edges of the volcano are high cliffs up to five miles tall! Olympus Mons is 69,459 feet (21,170 m.) tall, about 2.5 times higher than Everest! Italian astronomer Giovanni Schiaparelli (1835-1910) first gave the feature the name "Nix Olympica" which means "olympic snow," for its high albedo (reflectivity). Later astronomers adopted the current name Olympus Mons.

Question: Olympus Mons is the highest mountain on which planet in our solar system?
Answer: Mars