Image Context:
 Context image credit: NASA/Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter (MOLA) Team[ Find on map: Javascript version ]
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This THEMIS visible image captures a complex process of deposition, burial and
exhumation. The crater ejecta in the top of the image is in the form of flow
lobes, indicating that the crater was formed in volatile-rich terrain. While
a radial pattern can be seen in the ejecta, the pattern is sharper in the
lower half of the ejecta. This is because the top half of the ejecta is still
buried by a thin layer of sediment. It is most likely that at one time the
entire area was covered. Wind, and perhaps water erosion have started to
remove this layer, once again exposing the what was present underneath.
[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 |
