NASA Mars Odyssey THEMIS Image: Mars South Polar Layered Deposits

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Context image credit: NASA/Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter (MOLA) Team
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Remarkable layered deposits covering older, cratered surfaces near Mars’ south pole dominate this mosaic of images taken by the camera on NASA’s Mars Odyssey spacecraft between Nov. 8 and Nov. 26, 2003. The margin of these layered deposits appears to be eroding poleward, exposing a series of layers in the retreating cliff.

The mosaic, stitched from eight visible-wavelength images from Odyssey’s thermal emission imaging system, covers an area more than 325 kilometers (200 miles) long and 100 kilometers (62 miles) wide. The pictured area lies between 78 degrees and 82 degrees south latitude and between 90 degrees and 104 degrees east longitude.

[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