NASA Mars Odyssey THEMIS image: Tantalus Fluctus

Image Context:


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

[ Find on map: CGI version ]

The THEMIS Image of the Day will be exploring the nomenclature of Mars for the next three weeks.

Tantalus Fluctus

• Fluctus: flow terrain
• Tantalus: son of Zeus; King of Sipylos. He cut up

  and stewed the flesh of his son to serve at

  a feast with the gods. For this crime his family

  was cursed for five generations.

The Tantalus Fluctus region of Mars is comprised of multiple

lava flows. The margin of one of these flows is indicated

by red arrows on the VIS image above.

Nomenclature Fact of the Day: Three landform types that do not

use a descriptor as part of their name are craters,

eruptive centers, and large ring features.

[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