Status Report

Mars Odyssey THEMIS Image: Lava-filled craters

By SpaceRef Editor

June 12, 2003

Filed under Daily Themis Pictures, Mars, Mars Odyssey THEMIS, US

Image Context:

Context image for 20030612a

Context image credit: NASA/Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter (MOLA) Team
[ Find on map: Javascript version ]

[ Find on map: CGI version ]

Craters and hills form high standing streamlined plateaus or islands in a channelled area. The plateaus are rounded in the upstream direction and taper to a point in the downstream direction, indicating that the direction of flow in this area was roughly south to north, or bottom to top. The channels appear to be filled with lava flow deposits that are raised above the channel in some areas. A lava flow diverges around a small streamlined hill near the bottom of the image and then merges again around the northern end of it. Near the top of the image is a crater with a breach on the east (right) side that allowed the lava to flow in, leaving a lobate, high standing deposit. The channels may have been formed by the lava flows that currently fill them or there may have been flow of liquid water that created them before the lava was emplaced.

[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

[ Show Full-Size Image (GIF) ] [ Show Full-Size Image (JPG) ]

[ Show Full-Size Image (PNG) ] [ Show Full-Size Image (TIF) ]

[ Printer-friendly version ]