ESA's Mars probe captures an image of 82-km Broad ice-filled crater on the Red Planet's surface

There was a time once the news that scientists could have found water on Mars curious and awed the world. And now's the time when there are actual pictures that reveal a sign of a chance that it may be true.

The European Space Agency has revealed images captured by its Mars Express probe that show a giant crater known as'Korolev' on the surface of the Red Planet.

The crater was named after leader rocket engineer and spacecraft designer Sergei Korolev, who has been called the father of Soviet space technologies.

The crater, which can be found at the northern lowlands of Mars, just south of a huge patch of dune-filled terrain which encompasses the portion of the world's north polar cap, is approximately 82 km wide and about 2 kilometers deep.

By the ESA, Korolev is a well-preserved illustration of a Martian crater and can be full of ice and not by snow.

The crater is continuously enveloped in ice because of a phenomenon called a'cold trap' caused by the crater's floor, lying two kilometers vertically beneath its rim.

The deepest parts of Korolev crater, those comprising ice, act as a natural cold trap: the air moving across the residue of ice cools down and sinks, creating a layer of cold air that sits directly above the ice itself.

Acting for a shield, this layer helps the ice remain stable and prevents it from heating up and disappearing.

Air is a poor conductor of heat, worsens the impact, thus leading to maintaining Korolev crater eternally freezing.

ESA's Mars Express mission was launched on June 2, 2003, and reached Mars six months later.

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