- The scientists of the Ahmedabad-based Physical Research Laboratory (PRL) have discovered three new craters on Mars.
- They have been discovered in the Tharsis volcanic region on Mars.
- On the recommendation of the PRL, the International Astronomical Union (IAU) Working Group for Planetary System Nomenclature approved naming the three craters on Mars.
- One 65 km wide crater has been named ‘Lal Crater’ after Devendra Lal, a renowned Indian geophysicist and Director of the PRL.
- The second 10-km wide crater has been named ‘Mursan crater’ after a town in Uttar Pradesh.
- The third 10-km wide crater is the ‘Hilsa crater’ named after a town in Bihar.
- The PRL stated that its entire area, in the Tharsis volcanic region on Mars, is covered with lava.
- This crater has geophysical evidence of material other than lava, with a 45-metre-thick sedimentary deposit in its subsurface.
- This discovery provides compelling evidence that water has moved large volumes of sediment into the Lal crater.
- This finding also confirms that Mars was once wet, and water had flown on the surface.
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