The northeastern rim region of Hellas impact basin, located in the southern hemisphere of Mars, contained numerous ephemeral lakes throughout Mars’ history, a new study reveals. A new paper published in Astrobiology examines a region where depressions may have been hosted ponding water that originated from different sources, including precipitation, fluvial transportation and ground water. Sediments partially filled the depressions or formed fan shaped deposits within these paleolakes. Some of these paleolakes formed in fresh to degraded impact craters, others were situated in depressions of rolling terrain – paleolakes are lakes that existed at a time when the climate where it was located was different than today. The paper’s authors are Henrik I. Hargitai, who conducted the research while at NASA Ames Research Center; Virginia C. Gulick, SETI Institute; and Natalie H. Glines, SETI Institute.