Utopia Planitia

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Utopia Planitia is a huge plain on Mars and the largest known impact basin there. It measures about 3,300 km across, making it one of the largest basins in the Solar System. It sits in the northern hemisphere (around 46.7° N, 117.5° E), northeast of Isidis Planitia and northwest of Aetheria, and lies in several Martian map regions within the Borealis northern basin. The basin formed about 4.3 to 4.1 billion years ago when a giant object, about 400–700 km wide, struck Mars. The impact created a basin that was later filled in, creating a strong gravity anomaly detectable from space. The surface shows rocks perched on wind-eroded soil, a crust formed by moving minerals, and scalloped depressions likely from melting ice-rich ground. NASA found large underground ice there in 2016, believed to be as much as Lake Superior in volume. Viking 2 landed there in 1976, and China’s Zhurong rover landed there in 2021 as part of Tianwen-1. The area is part of Mars’ Borealis region and spans several quadrangles (Casius, Amenthes, and Cebrenia). In Star Trek, Utopia Planitia is the name of a famous shipyard in orbit above Mars.