NASA Mars Odyssey THEMIS Image: Thaumasia Crater

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Context image credit: NASA/Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter (MOLA) Team
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A 20 km diameter crater in the rugged Thaumasia uplands surrounding Solis Lacus contains an unusual filling of smooth material ramped up against the crater rim. While bearing some resemblance to the ìpasted on terrainî found associated with many of the gullied craters at similar latitude, this smooth material contains craters. This suggests an age for the material that is older than that of the other examples of crater-lining smooth materials that appear crater-free.

[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