Status Report

Mars Odyssey THEMIS Image: Channel to Nowhere

By SpaceRef Editor

May 22, 2003

Filed under Daily Themis Pictures, Mars, Mars Odyssey THEMIS, US

Image Context:

Context image for 20030522a

Context image credit: NASA/Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter (MOLA) Team
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A channel-like feature roughly halfway between the Isidis Basin and Elysium Mons shows no connection to either a source region or terminal basin. It may be that this feature is not a channel at all and has instead arisen from the erosion of a once continuous layer of material into remnants that mimic a channel.

[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

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