Nasa unveils Mars crater images

A dramatic new image of a crater on the red planet has been captured by Nasa's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, revealing sand dunes in the half-mile wide canyon.

The image of the Victoria Crater in the Meridiani Planum region of the planet was taken at a slightly oblique angle, which allowed Nasa to see more of the steep curves in the walls of the nearly 200ft (60m) deep crater.

Nasa used its High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRise) camera to take pictures of the crater floor.

A Nasa rover called Opportunity landed on Mars in 2006 and investigated the area until August last year, leaving marks that are still visible on the north side of the crater.

The new colour-enhanced image showed a bright band near the rim that marks the boundary between the bedrock and the material that was removed when the asteroid, which formed the crater, crashed.

According to researchers, although early estimates suggested that the Victoria Crater is somewhere between 10-100 million years old, the rocks within the depression could be much older.

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