Article Posted on : - May 11, 2010

The Hellas Basin crater captured by Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. A NASA photo

WASHINGTON (BNS): A closer look of Mars by NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) has thrown light on the varied featured of the Martian surface ranging from oddly sculpted terrain inside a giant crater to frosted dunes, deformed craters, old gullies and pits strung along fractured ground.

The MRO's High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) orbiting camera has captured the new images of Mars on March 28, 2010.

One of the images is that of the Hellas Basin, a large crater on southern Mars. With a diameter of about 2,200 kilometers and a depth reaching the lowest elevations on Mars, Hellas is one of the largest impact craters in the Solar System.

An area in this huge crater bears unusual features and is filled with "material”.

This may be related to volcanic activity on the northwestern rim of Hellas. However, it might also be related to water and water ice. There is evidence elsewhere that the ground here is ice-rich, NASA said.

The MRO camera will detect the new-found feature in greater detail when Hellas Basin is free from atmospheric dust, the space agency said.