For those astronomy fans out there: Have you ever looked at the Valles Marineris on Mars and thought that it sticks out like a sore thumb in the Martian landscape? I think scientists have already proven that there was once free-flowing water on Mars, but I don't think the forces of water can explain this colossal valley near Mars' equator. I don't quite buy the current theory that it is a geological rift valley.
It's almost a straight line and it looks like something gouged out the land. My crackpot theory is that Mars either had a 3rd moon that spiraled in from its unstable orbit (like Phobos is predicted to do in a few million years) and scraped along the ground for hundreds of miles, or a stray body from the nearby asteroid belt had its own close encounter with the planet. Could a catastrophe of this magnitude be enough to strip away whatever atmosphere Mars had and turn it into a desolate wasteland? I'm not qualified to say. Maybe NASA will send some probes to this region of Mars for a closer look.
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