NASA Mars Odyssey THEMIS Image: Crater in Nighttime IR

Image Context:


Context image credit: NASA/Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter (MOLA) Team
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This nighttime IR image is of a small crater. Note the

bright and dark portions of it’s ejecta blanket. With

ballistic emplacement of ejecta, larger(heavier) material

falls closer to the crater rim than smaller material.

This is clearly represented in the nighttime IR, where rockier

material is warmer/brighter and finer material is darker/

cooler.

[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