NASA Mars Odyssey THEMIS Image: Three Terrains

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Context image credit: NASA/Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter (MOLA) Team
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The great highland/lowland boundary that divides the whole of Mars cuts diagonally through this image. The smoother lowland terrain to the north appears to lap up against the highland terrain. An eroded layered terrain also is evident in the lower third of the image. This may be a remnant of the Medussae Fossae Formation, a lobe of which occurs just to the west of this scene.

[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