Mars Odyssey THEMIS Image: Chipped Paint Crater

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Context image credit: NASA/Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter (MOLA) Team
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In the high northern latitudes NW of Alba Patera, a smooth mantle of
material that covers the landscape appears chipped away from the rim
of a large crater. The prominent scarp that has formed from the retreat
of the mantle lacks the rounded appearance of other ice-rich mantles
found in the mid-latitudes. The nature of this mantling layer therefore is
more enigmatic.

[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