NASA Mars Odyssey THEMIS Image: Olympica Fossae Redux

Image Context:


Context image credit: NASA/Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter (MOLA) Team
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This image is of Olympica Fossae, located further eastward than yesterday’s image

and closer to Alba Patera. Note the complexity of the deeper main channel and the

nearby collapse channels. The deeper channel may represent an unroofed lava tube

or open main lava channel. The floor texture seen in the main channel in both

yesterday’s and today’s images may represent the surface of one of the last lava

flows hosted by the channel.

[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