NASA Mars Odyssey THEMIS Image: Elysium Planitia

Image Context:


Context image credit: NASA/Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter (MOLA) Team
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The THEMIS Image of the Day will be exploring the nomenclature of Mars for the next three weeks.

A Flash-based interactive viewer is available for this image.

Elysium Planitia

• Planitia: low plain
• Elysium: the Elysian fields. The Elysian fields are

  a paradise where the chosen of the gods reside

  after death; the heaven of heroes.

Elysium Planitia is located south of Elysium Mons, a large

volcano. Multiple lava flows are evident in the daytime

IR image. There are also small hills and craters of

various sizes.

Nomenclature Fact of the Day: Names with political, military, or

religious significance are not allowed, except for names

of political figures prior to the 19th century.

[Source: ASU THEMIS Science Team]

NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory manages the 2001 Mars Odyssey mission for NASA’s Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. The Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) was developed by Arizona State University, Tempe, in collaboration with Raytheon Santa Barbara Remote Sensing. The THEMIS investigation is led by Dr. Philip Christensen at Arizona State University. Lockheed Martin Astronautics, Denver, is the prime contractor for the Odyssey project, and developed and built the orbiter. Mission operations are conducted jointly from Lockheed Martin and from JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.

Image Credit: NASA/JPL/Arizona State University