The Hellas basin on Mars is a huge hole created when some object slammed into the red planet long ago. The basin is so old it's floor is riddled with smaller, more recent craters -- all of which are geriatric in their own right.

This new perspective view of the Hellas basin was calculated from data and stereo images gathered by the European Space Agency's Mars Express orbiter. It was released yesterday.

The gargantuan depression, in the Martian southern hemisphere, is at least 1,240 miles wide (2,000 kilometers) and 4.4 miles (7 kilometers) deep. The floor is covered in frost during winter. But it's so deep that sometimes pictures of the basin taken from Earth's vicinity are blurry because there's a lot more air in the basin than above other parts of Mars (just as there is more air above the ocean than above a tall mountain on Earth). The basin is often clouded over and even more obscured.

The new view is of a portion of the northern region of the basin, as seen from inside it, at 68° E longitude and 29° S latitude.

Credit: ESA/DLR/FU (G. Neukum)