Colour plan view of the northwest of Hellas Planitia
Colour plan view of the northwest of Hellas Planitia
Through a telescope, Hellas Planitia is one of the few structures that can be identified relatively easily. The more than 2000-kilometre-wide and up to eight-kilometre-deep basin stands out because of its strikingly light colour, which can be seen on the left side of the image. Over time, winds have brought large amounts of dust into the basin from the Martian Highlands, deposited it there and covered the plain with a light coat of dust.
Copyright note:
As a joint undertaking by DLR, ESA and FU Berlin, the Mars Express HRSC images are published under a Creative Commons licence since December 2014: ESA/DLR/FU Berlin, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO. This licence will also apply to all HRSC images released to date.