NASA Mars Odyssey THEMIS Image: A Martian Christmas Present

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Context image credit: NASA/Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter (MOLA) Team
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If all goes well, tonight at 6:54 pm PST the British robotic spacecraft called Beagle 2 will land on a patch of ground somewhere in this scene. This THEMIS image covers a portion of the Isidis Basin at the center of an elliptical region predicted to be the location that Beagle 2 will bounce to the surface. And what a surface it is, pockmarked by strange pits and unusual cones whose origin remains enigmatic. The cones may be the result of lava flowing over ice or water-rich ground resulting in explosions of steam that build small ìrootlessî volcanoes. The pits look like secondary craters that result from the impact of ejecta from larger craters. But they appear too numerous and densely clustered for that explanation. Instead, they also may be the result of some process involving water or ice. With luck, Beagle 2 will survive its violent landing and provide clues to the origin of this unusual landscape and answer questions about the role of water in Mars history.

[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