Mars Odyssey THEMIS Image: Erosion and wind deposition

Image Context:


Context image credit: NASA/Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter (MOLA) Team
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Streamlined buttes and mesas are left as remnants of an erosive wind that
has carried away sediments and even the rim of a small crater. Two wind
directions are apparent in the buttes and mesas that cross each other
at 90 degrees. Small dark dunes wind their way between the remnant
towers,
indicating that the work of the wind is an ongoing process.

[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