NASA Mars Odyssey THEMIS Image: Craters in Meridiani

Image Context:

Context image credit: NASA/Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter (MOLA) Team
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The Odyssey spacecraft has completed a full Mars year of observations
of the red planet. For the next several weeks the Image of the Day
will look back over this first mars year. It will focus on four
themes: 1) the poles – with the seasonal changes seen in the retreat
and expansion of the caps; 2) craters – with a variety of morphologies
relating to impact materials and later alteration, both infilling
and exhumation; 3) channels – the clues to liquid surface flow; and
4) volcanic flow features. While some images have helped answer
questions about the history of Mars, many have raised new questions
that are still being investigated as Odyssey continues collecting
data as it orbits Mars.

This daytime VIS image was collected on October 19, 2002 during the northern spring season. The three craters represent possibly three different ages of creaters, the youngest being the crater in the lower left which contains dunes.

[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