[PHOTO] What is this peculiar shape soaring above the March clouds?

On May 2, 2025, the probe March Odyssey captured a striking image of Martian clouds. And it is not the large greenish expanses that have jumped at us, but this strange form that comes out of it. For NASA and JPL, this image is even considered unprecedented.

© NASA/JPL-CALTECH/ASU

Arsia Mons, an old Martian volcano, was photographed before dawn on May 2, 2025 by the Mars Odyssey 2001 probe of NASA, while it studied the atmosphere of the red planet, which appears here in the form of a greenish mist.

Arsia Mons, a gigantic volcano on the surface of Mars …

You will understand, this strange form which exceeds March clouds is none other than Arsia Mons, a gigantic shield volcano. It is called because its conical and flat shape recalls the shape of a shield, quite simply.

And it is not a type of volcano that we find only on Mars, since on earth, the largest volcano on the planet is Mauna Loa. From its base, which begins under the ocean floor, at its top: there are approximately 17 kilometers. If it is only taken from sea level, it measures 4,169 meters. A beautiful baby.

Well, Arsia Mons, in view of the information of the JPL peaks at an altitude of about 17,761 meters. A Mars giant which is part of a trio with two other pavonis volcanoes Mons (14,058 meters) and ASCRæus Mons (18,225 meters) and which, together, form the alignment of Tharsis Montes or the Tharsis Mountains.

… but smaller than Olympus Mons

Because yes, even if Arsia Mons dominates all the mountains of the earth with the head and shoulders and some Mars volcanoes, no geological formation, throughout the solar system, arrives at the height of Olympus Mons.

With us Everest is our jewel which rises in the heavens and whose tip is 8,849 meters. On Mars, Olympus Mons also rises in the air, but its summit peaks more than 20,000 meters.

This Mars giant covers 600 kilometers in diameter, it is eight kilometers more than the distance between Paris from Brest. However, if we had the opportunity to go to its base, we would not be faced with a wall 20 kilometers high. Indeed, being particularly wide, the volcano has relatively soft slopes whose inclination is 6 ° on average after sky and space.

Well, it's still a hell of a trot to climb at the top.