NASA Mars Odyssey THEMIS Image: Daedalia Planum

Image Context:


Context image credit: NASA/Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter (MOLA) Team
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The THEMIS Image of the Day will be exploring the nomenclature of Mars for the next three weeks.

A Flash-based interactive viewer is available for this image.

Daedalia Planum

• Planum: plateau or high plain
• Daedalia: Daedalus was a famous inventor, architect,

  and craftsman. He designed the Labyrith at

  Knossos (the Minotaur’s prison), and the wings

  that caused the death of his son, Icarus.

Daedalia Planum is located south of Arsia Mons. Topographically,

this area appeares to be a relatively featureless plain (as can be

seen in the MOLA context image to the right).

However, the daytime IR image shows multiple lava flows and small craters.

The descriptor “fluctus” may be a better term to use now that we have better images of this region.

Nomenclature Fact of the Day: Small craters on Mars are named for

towns and villages from all over the world with populations

less than 100,000.

[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