Utopia Planitia ( Greek and

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

: "

Utopia A utopia ( ) typically describes an imagined community or society that possesses highly desirable or near-perfect qualities for its members. It was coined by Sir Thomas More for his 1516 book ''Utopia (book), Utopia'', which describes a fictiona ...

Land Plain") is a large

plain In geography, a plain, commonly known as flatland, 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 ...

within Utopia, the largest recognized impact basin on

Mars Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun. It is also known as the "Red Planet", because of its orange-red appearance. Mars is a desert-like rocky planet with a tenuous carbon dioxide () atmosphere. At the average surface level the atmosph ...

and in the Solar System with an estimated diameter of . It is the Martian region where the '' Viking 2'' lander touched down and began exploring on September 3, 1976, and the ''Zhurong'' rover touched down on May 14, 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 of Mars. The region is in the broader North Polar/Borealis Basin that covers most of the Northern Hemisphere of Mars. The Utopia basin is estimated to have formed around 4.3-4.1 billion years ago. The impactor was likely around in diameter. The basin was subsequently mostly filled in, resulting in a mascon (a strong positive gravity anomaly) detectable by orbiting satellites. 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.

Scalloped topography

Scalloped topography is common in the mid-latitudes 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 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. 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.

In popular culture

In the ''

Star Trek ''Star Trek'' is an American science fiction media franchise created by Gene Roddenberry, which began with the Star Trek: The Original Series, series of the same name and became a worldwide Popular culture, pop-culture Cultural influence of ...

'' media franchise, Utopia Planitia—both on Mars's surface and a

space station A space station (or orbital station) is a spacecraft which remains orbital spaceflight, in orbit and human spaceflight, hosts humans for extended periods of time. It therefore is an artificial satellite featuring space habitat (facility), habitat ...

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 re ...

shipyard, the Utopia Planitia Fleet Yards. Ships such as the USS ''Enterprise''-D, USS ''Defiant'', USS ''Voyager'' and USS ''Sao Paulo'' were built there.

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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 Albedo features on Mars Amenthes quadrangle Cebrenia quadrangle # Plains on Mars Star Trek locations

Scalloped topography

In popular culture

See also

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