MAMMOTH MOUNTAIN:Mount Everest may be the tallest mountain—and the most famous ascent—on Earth, but at 8,850 meters it is not nearly the highest peak in the solar system. That honor goes to Mars's Olympus Mons, a volcano more than 600 kilometers in diameter (about the size of Arizona) and, standing 27 kilometers at its peak, roughly three times as tall as Everest.
Martian dust devils earn the title of "the most extreme vacuum cleaners in the solar system" in David Baker and Todd Ratcliff's new book, The 50 Most Extreme Places in Our Solar System. Thanks to low pressure and surface gravity on Mars, the dusty vortices tower over terrestrial dust devils and tornadoes—they can reach the height of Mount Everest with winds in excess of 300 kilometers per hour, according to Baker and Ratcliff.
(Scientific American)
(Scientific American)
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