Skip to main content

Verona Rupes: Tallest Known Cliff in the Solar System

Posted by Specola Profile 11/29/20 at 12:16PM Science - Tech - Astronomy See more by Specola

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

Could you survive a jump off the tallest cliff in the Solar System? Quite possibly. Verona Rupes on Uranus' moon Miranda is estimated to be 20 kilometers deep -- ten times the depth of the Earth's Grand Canyon. Given Miranda's low gravity, it would take about 12 minutes for a thrill-seeking adventurer to fall from the top, reaching the bottom at the speed of a racecar -- about 200 kilometers per hour. Even so, the fall might be survivable given proper airbag protection. The featured image of Verona Rupes was captured by the passing Voyager 2 robotic spacecraft in 1986. How the giant cliff was created remains unknown, but is possibly related to a large impact or tectonic surface motion.

Click the Image to learn more about us

Read more from Pepe's Painting LLC

Hunger impacts all of us | 360-435-1631

Snohomish, Skagit and Island County

Powered by Volunteers | 360-794-7959

Giving Kids in Need the Chance to Read
  Non-profit organization - Seattle, WA