Feature Image: Floor of Hellas Basin (Released 27 September 2002)

Image Credit: NASA/JPL/ASU

Context image credit: NASA/JPL/MOLA
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Detailed information on this image is available at the THEMIS Data Releases website.

 

Please see the THEMIS Data Citation Note for details on crediting THEMIS images.

 

With a diameter of roughly 2000 km and a depth of over 7 km, the Hellas Basin is the largest impact feature on Mars. Because of its great depth, there is significantly more atmo- sphere to peer through in order to see its floor, reducing the quality of the images taken from orbit. This THEMIS image straddles a scarp between the Hellas floor and an accumulation of material at least a half kilometer thick that covers much of the floor. The southern half of the image contains some of this material. Strange ovoid landforms are present here that give the appearance of flow. It is possible that water ice or even liquid water was present in the deposits and somehow responsible for the observed landscape. The floor of Hellas remains a poorly understood portion of the planet that should benefit from the analysis of new THEMIS data.