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(SPACE.com) -- New images of Mars show fresh detail of steep and inexplicable slopes.
The Medusa Fossae formation is an extensive area of unknown origin found near a boundary between the highlands and lowlands of Mars. It straddles the Tharsis and Elysium centers of volcanic activity.
This dichotomy boundary is a narrow region separating the cratered highlands, located mostly in the southern hemisphere of the red planet, from the northern hemisphere's lowland plains.
The cratered highlands stand 1.2 -- 3.1 miles (2 -- 5 kilometers) above the lowland plains, so the boundary is a relatively steep slope.
The processes that created and modified the boundary remain a major unanswered issues in Mars science, say scientists with the European Space Agency, which released the Mars Express orbiter images last week.
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