A reading of the article “Spiral Galaxies and Grand Canyons” by Wal Thornhill. Narrated by David Harrison, proprietor of Stickman On Stone.
The grandest canyon in the solar system is Valles Marineris stretching a third of the way around the planet Mars. So what exactly does a spiral galaxy have in common with Mars?
A topographic map of Mars details the extended terrain of Valles Marineris and its connected canyons. Upon comparison, it’s clear the landscape is equivalent in structure to a classic barred-spiral galaxy—such as our own Milky Way.
Perhaps a cosmic thunderbolt struck Mars with two massive filaments (or plasmoids) on what is now the deepest central canyons of Valles Marineris. Could electromagnetic forces then constrained the discharge to create the indistinguishable pattern of a barred-spiral galaxy?
Electrical effects are scalable over more than 14 orders of magnitude—galaxies are one of the largest visible electric discharge phenomenon—and the barred-spiral shape of the Martian facelift is the reveal.
