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Utopia Planitia (
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and
Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through ...
: "Nowhere Land Plain") is a large
plain In geography, a plain is a flat expanse of land that generally does not change much in elevation, and is primarily treeless. Plains occur as lowlands along valleys or at the base of mountains, as coastal plains, and as plateaus or uplands ...
within Utopia, the largest recognized impact basin on
Mars Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun and the second-smallest planet in the Solar System, only being larger than Mercury. In the English language, Mars is named for the Roman god of war. Mars is a terrestrial planet with a thin at ...
and in the Solar System with an estimated diameter of . It is the Martian region where the ''
Viking 2 The ''Viking 2'' mission was part of the American Viking program to Mars, and consisted of an orbiter and a lander essentially identical to that of the ''Viking 1'' mission. ''Viking 2'' was operational on Mars for sols ( days; '). The ''Vi ...
'' lander touched down and began exploring on September 3, 1976, and the ''Zhurong'' rover touched down on 14 May, 2021, as a part of the Tianwen-1 mission. It is located at the antipode of Argyre Planitia, centered at . It is also in the Casius quadrangle, Amenthes quadrangle, and the
Cebrenia quadrangle The Cebrenia quadrangle is one of a series of 30 quadrangle maps of Mars used by the United States Geological Survey (USGS) Astrogeology Research Program. The quadrangle is located in the northeastern portion of Mars’ eastern hemisphere and ...
of Mars. Many rocks at Utopia Planitia appear perched, as if wind removed much of the soil at their bases. A hard surface crust is formed by solutions of minerals moving up through soil and evaporating at the surface. Some areas of the surface exhibit scalloped topography, a surface that looks like it was carved out by an ice cream scoop. This surface is thought to have formed by the degradation of an ice-rich permafrost. Many features that look like pingos on the Earth are found in Utopia Planitia (~35–50° N; ~80–115° E). On November 22, 2016, NASA reported finding a large amount of underground ice in the Utopia Planitia region. The volume of water detected has been estimated to be equivalent to the volume of water in
Lake Superior Lake Superior in central North America is the largest freshwater lake in the world by surface areaThe Caspian Sea is the largest lake, but is saline, not freshwater. and the third-largest by volume, holding 10% of the world's surface fresh wa ...
.


Scalloped topography

Scalloped topography is common in the
mid-latitudes The middle latitudes (also called the mid-latitudes, sometimes midlatitudes, or moderate latitudes) are a spatial region on Earth located between the Tropic of Cancer (latitudes 23°26'22") to the Arctic Circle (66°33'39"), and Tropic of Caprico ...
of Mars, between 45° and 60° north and south. It is particularly prominent in the region of Utopia Planitia in the northern hemisphere and in the region of
Peneus In Greek mythology, Peneus (; Ancient Greek: Πηνειός) was a Thessalian river god, one of the three thousand Rivers ( Potamoi), a child of Oceanus and Tethys. Family The nymph Creusa bore him one son, Hypseus, who was King of the La ...
and Amphitrites Patera in the southern hemisphere. Such topography consists of shallow, rimless depressions with scalloped edges, commonly referred to as scalloped depressions or simply . Scalloped depressions can be isolated or clustered and sometimes seem to coalesce. A typical scalloped depression displays a gentle equator-facing slope and a steeper pole-facing scarp. This topographic asymmetry is probably due to differences in
insolation Solar irradiance is the power per unit area ( surface power density) received from the Sun in the form of electromagnetic radiation in the wavelength range of the measuring instrument. Solar irradiance is measured in watts per square metre ...
. Scalloped depressions are believed to form from the removal of subsurface material, possibly interstitial ice, by sublimation. This process may still be happening at present. ESP 037461 2255scallopstop.jpg, Scalloped ground, as seen by HiRISE under HiWish program. A study published in Icarus, found that the landforms of scalloped topography can be made by the subsurface loss of water ice by sublimation under current Martian climate conditions. Their model predicts similar shapes when the ground has large amounts of pure ice, up to many tens of meters in depth. ESP 037461 2255scallopground.jpg, Close up of scalloped ground, as seen by HiRISE under HiWish program. Surface is divided into polygons; these forms are common where ground freezes and thaws. Note: this is an enlargement of a previous image. ESP 037461 2255scallopsbottom.jpg, Scalloped ground, as seen by HiRISE under HiWish program. ESP 037461 2255scallopsclose.jpg, Close-up of scalloped ground, as seen by HiRISE under HiWish program. Surface is divided into polygons; these forms are common where ground freezes and thaws. Note: this is an enlargement of a previous image.


Pedestal craters

Esp 036815 2330pedestal.jpg, Pedestal crater, as seen by HiRISE under HiWish program The ejecta is not symmetrical around crater because the asteroid came at a low angle out of the North East. The ejecta protected the underlying material from erosion; hence the crater looks elevated. The location is Casius quadrangle. Esp 036815 2330pedestallobe.jpg, Close-up of East side (right side) of previous image of pedestal crater showing polygons on lobe. Since the margin of the crater has lobes and polygons, it is believed there is ice under the protective top. Picture taken with HiRISE under HiWish program. Note: this is an enlargement of the previous image.


Polygonal patterned ground

Polygonal, patterned ground is quite common in some regions of Mars. It is commonly believed to be caused by the sublimation of ice from the ground. Sublimation is the direct change of solid ice to a gas. This is similar to what happens to
dry ice Dry ice is the solid form of carbon dioxide. It is commonly used for temporary refrigeration as CO2 does not have a liquid state at normal atmospheric pressure and sublimates directly from the solid state to the gas state. It is used primarily ...
on the Earth. Places on Mars that display polygonal ground may indicate where future colonists can find water ice. Patterned ground forms in a mantle layer, called latitude dependent mantle, that fell from the sky when the climate was different.Head, J.W., Mustard, J.F., Kreslavsky, M.A., Milliken, R.E., Marchant, D.R., 2003. Recent ice ages on Mars. Nature 426 (6968), 797–802. 44042 2240lowcenterpolygons.jpg, Low center polygons, shown with arrows, as seen by
HiRISE High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment is a camera on board the '' Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter'' which has been orbiting and studying Mars since 2006. The 65 kg (143 lb), US$40 million instrument was built under the direction ...
under
HiWish program HiWish is a program created by NASA so that anyone can suggest a place for the HiRISE camera on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter to photograph. It was started in January 2010. In the first few months of the program 3000 people signed up to use HiRIS ...
Location is Casius quadrangle. Image was enlarged with HiView. 44042 2240highcenterpolygons.jpg, High center polygons, shown with arrows, as seen by HiRISE under HiWish program. Location is Casius quadrangle. Image enlarged with HiView. 44042 2240scallops.jpg, Scalloped terrain labeled with both low center polygons and high center polygons, as seen by HiRISE under HiWish program. Location is Casius quadrangle. Image enlarged with HiView. 44042 2240lowcenter.jpg, Low center polygons, as seen by HiRISE under HiWish program. Location is Casius quadrangle. Image enlarged with HiView. 44042 2240highlowcenters.jpg, High and low center polygons, as seen by HiRISE under HiWish program. Location is Casius quadrangle. Image enlarged with HiView.


Other features in Utopia Planitia

Wikimolautopia.jpg, MOLA map showing boundaries for Utopia Planitia and other regions Image:24473stem.jpg, Holes and hollows on crater floor in Utopia Planitia, as seen by HiRISE under HiWIsh program. These shapes may have resulted from ice leaving the ground. 44410 2195glacier.jpg,
Glacier A glacier (; ) is a persistent body of dense ice that is constantly moving under its own weight. A glacier forms where the accumulation of snow exceeds its ablation over many years, often centuries. It acquires distinguishing features, such a ...
on a crater floor, as seen by HiRISE under HiWish program. The cracks in the glacier may be crevasses. There is also a gully system on the crater wall. ESP 044832 2035mesa.jpg, Layered mesa, as seen by HiRISE under HiWish program 47653 2150ctxchannel.jpg, Context for next image of layers along Hrad Vallis, as seen by CTX. Photo labeled with layers, streamlined forms, and arrow indicating direction water flowed. ESP 047653 2150layers.jpg, Layers exposed along Hrad Vallis, as seen by HiRISE under HiWish program


Gallery


In popular culture

In the ''
Star Trek ''Star Trek'' is an American science fiction media franchise created by Gene Roddenberry, which began with the eponymous 1960s television series and quickly became a worldwide pop-culture phenomenon. The franchise has expanded into vari ...
'' media franchise, Utopia Planitia—both on Mars' surface and a
space station A space station is a spacecraft capable of supporting a human crew in orbit for an extended period of time, and is therefore a type of space habitat. It lacks major propulsion or landing systems. An orbital station or an orbital space station ...
in areosynchronous orbit above it—is the site of a major
United Federation of Planets In the fictional universe of ''Star Trek'' the United Federation of Planets (UFP) is the interstellar government with which, as part of its space force Starfleet, most of the characters and starships of the franchise are affiliated. Commonly refe ...
shipyard, the Utopia Planitia Fleet Yards. Ships such as the USS ''Enterprise''-D, USS ''Defiant'', USS ''Voyager'' and USS ''Sao Paulo'' were built there.


Interactive Mars map


See also

* Glaciers on Mars *
Geography of Mars Areography, also known as the geography of Mars, is a subfield of planetary science that entails the delineation and characterization of regions on Mars. Areography is mainly focused on what is called physical geography on Earth; that is the ...
*
List of plains on Mars This is a list of plains on Mars. Such features are named after the nearest classical albedo feature in compliance with the International Astronomical Union's rules of planetary nomenclature. Plains may be named denoted "planitia" or "planum", dep ...
* Scalloped topography


Notes


References


External links


Laser altimetry of the north pole of Mars
Utopia Planitia located in upper right
Google Mars scrollable map
– centered on Utopia Planitia


PIA00576: Martian Sunrise at Utopia Planitia (NASA Photojournal)

PIA00530: Frost on Utopia Planitia (NASA Photojournal)

PIA03796: Utopia Planitia (NASA Photojournal)
{{Authority control Plains on Mars # Albedo features on Mars Star Trek locations Amenthes quadrangle Cebrenia quadrangle