Martian twilight

The photograph below was taken not far from Serres, in the Red Lands of the Upper Valley of the Aude (Occitanie). These 135-million-year-old clays form a succession of small canyons covered with sparse vegetation. Has such a landscape ever existed on the surface of Mars? Read more ...

Earth in the Universe : Introduction|The creation of the world|The movement of stars and planets

Martian twilight

Anticipation or Science Fiction?

Mars, in the year 2030 AD. The Sun disappears below the horizon, tinting with blue the thin atmosphere that still surrounds the Red Planet. At the bottom of the canyon carved by the water runoff hundreds of millions of years earlier, the ExoMars mission launched by the European Space Agency has discovered traces of ancient DNA, the molecule common to the whole living organisms on Earth. DNA of plants, similar to those that now strew the Red Rocks of the Upper Aude Valley. So, life is no exception! On Mars too, it got developed a few hundred million years after the formation of our Solar System.

Our quest for origins has only just begun ...

Red Lands of the Upper Valley of the Aude

Photo Infos

Photographic conditions : Lumix DMC-GF1 + Lens 20mm F1.7 - F/8 - 1/100 second - ISO 100
Processing tool of the photography : Silkypix Developper Studio 7.1.8
Optimization of the display : 180 px/in + MozJPEG

Keywords : Red Lands, Upper Valley of the Aude, ExoMars mission, traces of life, Mars

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