NASA Mars Odyssey THEMIS Image: Sea of Sand in Juventae Chasma

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Context image credit: NASA/Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter (MOLA) Team
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The steep walls of Juventae Chasma tower over the wide variety of landforms on the floor of the canyon (see related image). Here, in the southernmost portion of the chasma, vast sheets of sand overlay one another and pile against the canyon walls. Fantastic dune patterns have formed as wind swirled around the head of the canyon.

[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