Status Report

Mars Odyssey THEMIS Image: Kasei Valles 05-09-2002

By SpaceRef Editor

May 9, 2002

Filed under Daily Themis Pictures, Mars Odyssey THEMIS, US

Image Context:

Context image credit: NASA/Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter (MOLA) Team

Kasei Valles (Kasei is the Japanese word for Mars) is one of the largest outflow channels on Mars. Kasei Valles stretches some 2,000 km across the face of Mars and empties into the Chryse basin. This THEMIS image is of the northern branch of Kasei Valles and shows the channel floor and northern channel wall. The plateau surface located at the top of this image is more heavily cratered than the channel floor which indicates that the plateau is older than the channel floor. The wall of the plateau has spur and gully topography present. The floor of the channel has evidence of fluvial scour including a smaller inner channel. These features were probably carved out during waning stage flow. The probable causes of Martian floods are massive releases of subsurface water/ice due to possible subsurface volcanic activity. Martian outflow channels begin at point sources (chaotic terrain and box canyons) and then flow unconfined into a basin region..

[Source: ASU THEMIS Science Team]

Note: this THEMIS visual image has not been radiometrically nor geometrically calibrated for this preliminary release. An empirical correction has been performed to remove instrumental effects. A linear shift has been applied in the cross-track and down-track direction to approximate spacecraft and planetary motion. Fully calibrated and geometrically projected images will be released through the Planetary Data System in accordance with Project policies at a later time.

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