NASA Mars Odyssey THEMIS Image: Ice Surfaces In False Color

Image Context:


Context image credit: NASA/Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter (MOLA) Team
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The theme for the weeks of 1/17 and 1/24 is the north polar region

of Mars as seen in false color THEMIS images. Ice/frost will typically

appear as bright blue in color; dust mantled ice will appear in

tones of red/orange.

This full resolution image shows a marked difference in

the “blueness” of the ice surfaces. The lower (presumably

older) surface is oranger and the top (presumably younger)

surface is blue. This may represent the fresher ice of the

upper surface which has not yet covered with as much dust

as the lower surface.

[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