As part of its Mars exploration initiative, American space agency NASA has released a new gravity map of the red planet that is believed to have the potential of providing minutest and most detailed look of the planet’s unforeseen interiors. The improved resolution may help scientists crack certain mysteries associated with various regions of the planet that still continue to perplex humans.

The gravity maps play the same role in scanning the inside of a planet as a doctor does while conducting an X-ray to see the close organ details of a patient, said Antonio Genova from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in a NASA press release.

Genova, lead author of a paper specifying gravity on Mars, said future Mars exploration would get a boost from the new gravity map as better information about the planet’s gravity anomalies would help the mission controllers put a spacecraft more accurately into the orbit around Mars. The improved resolution may help explain some features formed across the boundary, which divides the relatively smooth northern lowlands from heavily cratered southern highlands.

As is the case with all other planets, Mars too is lumpy, a factor that results in a gravitational pull being felt by spacecraft in the orbit around it.

NASA's Deep Space Network prepared the data by using its Doppler and other related data gathered by three NASA spacecraft, including Mars Global Surveyor (MGS), Mars Odyssey (ODY) and the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), that have been orbiting around Mars.

“With this new map, we've been able to see gravity anomalies as small as about 100 kilometers (about 62 miles) across, and we've determined the crustal thickness of Mars with a resolution of around 120 kilometers (almost 75 miles)”, said Genova.

The better resolution of the new map helps interpret how the crust of the planet changed over Mars' history in many regions, added Genova.