NASA researchers have named a small patch of Mars “Winnipeg”. That is because Winnipeg can be as cold as Mars sometimes.

Mars has long fascinated humans and an upcoming Hollywood film documents what it would be like to visit the Red Planet.

The naming of the patch on Mars wasn’t a front line news on NASA site, but came up during a regular mission update that was posted on Monday, September 14.

“It’s probably like a foot across”, said Scott Young, an astronomer and manager of science communication and visitor experiences at the Manitoba Museum in Winnipeg. “It’s hard to tell because there’s no scale bar on the picture, but it’s a really, really small area”.

It might be small, but “Winnipeg” is significant because it could have clues regarding whether there was ever life on Mars. “But this little piece of real estate up there, we got a claim to it”.

NASA didn’t go into detail of the name’s origins, but Young stated that it’s nice for Winnipeg to be recognized.

The Curiosity rover reported that Mars reached a temperature of -29 C on December . 31, 2013.

With winds blowing that day, the chill values??were dropping temperatures to -40 or -50 C, meaning exposed skin can freeze in less than five minutes.

Plans are ongoing to test out rocks that have been taken from Winnipeg on Mars, while geological images of the area are also going to be taken. The area had running water in the past, and may contain fossils.

He said that there are astronomers from Winnipeg who are working for NASA and chances are that some of them may be with the Curiosity team and they may be the ones who remember city’s famously cold winters and that’s where the inspiration of the name could have come from.