Fact Sheet
A Hole in Mars
A huge asteroid that smacked into Mars billions of years ago created one of the largest impact basins in the solar system. Known as Hellas Basin, it is the dark blue oval at the bottom of this topographic map of Mars, which was compiled with data from the Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft. The basin is bigger than Texas and several miles deep. A larger but shallower basin, which might have held an ancient ocean, is the light blue region at top. [NASA/GSFC]
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