Hellas Planitia on Mars

The HRSC on board ESA's Mars Express spacecraft obtained this colour image on 1 July 2004 during orbit 572 with a ground resolution of approximately 45.1 metres per pixel.

The scene shows the region of Hellas Planitia, about 234 kilometres wide in the north and 345 kilometres wide in the south, about 898 kilometres in length, and centred approximately at 89° East and 29° South.

The image represents an area on the northern eastern rim of Hellas Planitia, also known as the Hellas impact basin in Mars's southern hemispere. The basin is thought to have formed around 3900 million years ago in a single massive impact.

This image was created by ESA Science from data contained in the Mars Express public archive. The selected colour scheme is an interpretation based on the original raw data.