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This image from NASA's Mars Odyssey shows part of Meridiani Planum. | Context imageThe THEMIS VIS camera contains 5 filters. The data from different filters can be combined in multiple ways to create a false color image. These false color images may reveal subtle variations of the surface not easily identified in a single band image. Today's false color image shows part of Meridiani Planum.Orbit Number: 80686 Latitude: -3.46978 Longitude: 354.525 Instrument: VIS Captured: 2020-02-22 00:03Please see the THEMIS Data Citation Note for details on crediting THEMIS images.NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory manages the 2001 Mars Odyssey mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, 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. | |
NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity shows a close-up of the region dubbed 'El Capitan,' which lies within the rock outcrop at Meridiani Planum, Mars. A spherule, or sphere-shaped grain, is penetrating the interior of a small cavity called a vug. | This image, taken by the microscopic imager onboard the Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity, shows a close-up of the region dubbed "El Capitan," which lies within the rock outcrop at Meridiani Planum, Mars. In the lower left, a spherule, or sphere-shaped grain, can be seen penetrating the interior of a small cavity called a vug. This "cross-cutting" relationship allows the relative timing of separate events to be established. In this case, the spherule appears to "invade" the vug, and therefore likely post-dates the vug. This suggests that the spherules may have been one of the last features to form within the outcrop. | |
This image from NASA's 2001 Mars Odyssey spacecraft shows part of the dune field near Meroe Patera. Winds are blowing the dunes across a rough surface of regional volcanic lava flows. | Context image This image shows part of the dune field near Meroe Patera. High resolution imaging by other spacecraft has revealed that the dunes in this region are moving. Winds are blowing the dunes across a rough surface of regional volcanic lava flows. The paterae are calderas on the volcanic complex called Syrtis Major Planum. Dunes are found in both Nili and Meroe Paterae and in the region between the two calderas.The Odyssey spacecraft has spent over 15 years in orbit around Mars, circling the planet more than 69000 times. It holds the record for longest working spacecraft at Mars. THEMIS, the IR/VIS camera system, has collected data for the entire mission and provides images covering all seasons and lighting conditions. Over the years many features of interest have received repeated imaging, building up a suite of images covering the entire feature. From the deepest chasma to the tallest volcano, individual dunes inside craters and dune fields that encircle the north pole, channels carved by water and lava, and a variety of other feature, THEMIS has imaged them all. For the next several months the image of the day will focus on the Tharsis volcanoes, the various chasmata of Valles Marineris, and the major dunes fields. We hope you enjoy these images!Orbit Number: 28341 Latitude: 6.34784 Longitude: 68.078 Instrument: VIS Captured: 2008-05-04 22:05Please see the THEMIS Data Citation Note for details on crediting THEMIS images.NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory manages the 2001 Mars Odyssey mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, 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. | |
This image captured by NASA's 2001 Mars Odyssey spacecraft shows several linear depressions that cross an unnamed crater. The depressions are tectonic fractures that are hundreds of km long. | Context imageToday's VIS image shows several linear depressions that cross an unnamed crater. The depressions are tectonic fractures that are hundreds of km long.Orbit Number: 58617 Latitude: -29.6672 Longitude: 211.652 Instrument: VIS Captured: 2015-03-02 05:34Please see the THEMIS Data Citation Note for details on crediting THEMIS images.NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory manages the 2001 Mars Odyssey mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, 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. | |
This enhanced color image from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) shows the heavily channeled and ancient southern highlands of Mars. The elongated and jagged features are windblown dunes, perhaps hardened and eroded. | Map Projected Browse ImageClick on image for larger versionThe map is projected here at a scale of 50 centimeters (19.7 inches) per pixel.[The original image scale is 52.1 centimeters (20.5 inches) per pixel (with 2 x 2 binning); objects on the order of 156 centimeters (61.4 inches) across are resolved.] North is up.This enhanced color image from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) shows the heavily channeled and ancient southern highlands of Mars. The elongated and jagged features are windblown dunes, perhaps hardened and eroded.The University of Arizona, Tucson, operates HiRISE, which was built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., Boulder, Colorado. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of Caltech in Pasadena, California, manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. | |
This image from NASA's Mars Odyssey shows Noctis Labyrinthus. There are two directions of faults visible, which intersect at an approximately 90 degree angle. | Context imageThis VIS image is located in Noctis Labyrinthus. There are two directions of faults visible, which intersect at an approximately 90 degree angle. The faults running from bottom right to upper left are the younger set. The change in direction indicates a change in the tectonic stresses in the region.Orbit Number: 74276 Latitude: -6.04595 Longitude: 261.215 Instrument: VIS Captured: 2018-09-12 03:22Please see the THEMIS Data Citation Note for details on crediting THEMIS images.NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory manages the 2001 Mars Odyssey mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, 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. | |
In the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility, workers prepare to lift the Mars Exploration Rover-1 (MER-B) onto a spin table during preflight processing of the spacecraft. | May 29, 2003Prelaunch at Kennedy Space CenterIn the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility, workers prepare to lift the Mars Exploration Rover-1 (MER-B) onto a spin table during preflight processing of the spacecraft. The rover is scheduled to launch aboard a Delta II rocket on June 25. NASA's twin Mars Exploration Rovers are designed to study the history of water on Mars. These robotic geologists are equipped with a robotic arm, a drilling tool, three spectrometers, and four pairs of cameras that allow them to have a human-like, 3D view of the terrain. Each rover could travel as far as 100 meters in one day to act as Mars scientists' eyes and hands, exploring an environment where humans are not yet able to go. The launch of MER-2 (MER-A) is tentatively set for June 8. | |
This image from NASA's Mars Odyssey spacecraft shows part of Meridiani Planum. At the top of the image are small, bright windstreaks that form chevrons. The chevron pattern indicates that winds from two different directions formed the streaks. | Context image for PIA09314Dual WindsThis infrared image shows part of Meridiani Planum. At the top of the image are small, bright windstreaks that form chevrons. The chevron pattern indicates that winds from two different directions formed the streaks.Image information: IR instrument. Latitude -0.2N, Longitude 8.8E. 99 meter/pixel resolution.Please see the THEMIS Data Citation Note for details on crediting THEMIS images.Note: this THEMIS visual image has not been radiometrically nor geometrically calibrated for this preliminary release. An empirical correction has been performed to remove instrumental effects. A linear shift has been applied in the cross-track and down-track direction to approximate spacecraft and planetary motion. Fully calibrated and geometrically projected images will be released through the Planetary Data System in accordance with Project policies at a later time.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. | |
This image from NASA's Mars Odyssey shows parts of Ophir Chasma and Candor Chasma. Both are part of Valles Marineris. | Context imageToday's VIS image shows parts of Ophir Chasma (top of image) and Candor Chasma (bottom of image). Both are part of Valles Marineris. Candor Chasma is approximately 810 km long (503 miles) and is divided into two regions — eastern and western Candor. This image is of western Candor Chasma. The floor of Candor Chasma includes a variety of landforms, including layered deposits, dunes, landslide deposits and steep sided cliffs and mesas. Many forms of erosion have shaped Candor Chasma. There is evidence of wind and water erosion, as well as significant gravity driven mass wasting (landslides). Ophir Chasma is approximately 317km long (197 miles). This image shows the western end of Ophir Chasma. A landslide is visible in Ophir Chasma.Orbit Number: 82086 Latitude: -4.67658 Longitude: 285.773 Instrument: VIS Captured: 2020-06-16 06:38Please see the THEMIS Data Citation Note for details on crediting THEMIS images.NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory manages the 2001 Mars Odyssey mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, 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. | |
NASA's Mars Global Surveyor shows part of a dark-floored valley system in northern Newton Crater on Mars. | MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-418, 11 July 2003This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) high resolution image shows part of a dark-floored valley system in northern Newton Crater. The valley might have been originally formed by liquid water; the dark material is probably sand that has blown into the valley in more recent times. The picture was acquired earlier this week on July 6, 2003, and is located near 39.2°S, 157.9°W. The picture covers an area 2.3 km (1.4 mi) across; sunlight illuminates the scene from the upper left. | |
This image from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shows a circular impact crater and an oval volcanic caldera on the southern flank of a large volcano on Mars called Pavonis Mons. | Map Projected Browse ImageClick on the image for larger versionThis image shows a circular impact crater and an oval volcanic caldera on the southern flank of a large volcano on Mars called Pavonis Mons.The caldera is also the source of numerous finger-like lava flows and at least one sinuous lava channel. Both the caldera and the crater are degraded by aeolian (wind) erosion. The strong prevailing winds have apparently carved deep grooves into the terrain.When looking at the scene for the first time, the image seems motion blurred. However, upon a closer look, the smaller, young craters are pristine, so the image must be sharp and the "blurriness" is due to the processes acting on the terrain. This suggests that the deflation-produced grooves, along with the crater and the caldera, are old features and deflation is not very active today. Alternatively, perhaps these craters are simply too young to show signs of degradation.This deeply wind-scoured terrain type is unique to Mars. Wind-carved stream-lined landforms on Earth are called "yardangs," but they don't form extensive terrains like this one. The basaltic lavas on the flanks of this volcano have been exposed to wind for such a long time that there are no parallels on Earth. Terrestrial landscapes and terrestrial wind patterns change much more rapidly than on Mars. The University of Arizona, Tucson, operates HiRISE, which was built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., Boulder, Colo. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. | |
The THEMIS VIS camera contains 5 filters. The data from different filters can be combined in multiple ways to create a false color image. This image from NASA's 2001 Mars Odyssey spacecraft shows part of Aureum Chaos. | Context imageThe THEMIS VIS camera contains 5 filters. The data from different filters can be combined in multiple ways to create a false color image. These false color images may reveal subtle variations of the surface not easily identified in a single band image. Today's false color image shows part of Aureum Chaos.Orbit Number: 10537 Latitude: -3.64083 Longitude: 332.87 Instrument: VIS Captured: 2004-04-29 22:43Please see the THEMIS Data Citation Note for details on crediting THEMIS images.NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory manages the 2001 Mars Odyssey mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, 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. | |
This true-color panorama in hues of red and brown from NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit taken in Sept, 2005 shows a field of view covered in rocks as the rover explored Gusev Crater on Mars. | Click on the image for Sweeping View of the "Columbia Hills" and Gusev Crater (QTVR)Spirit took this panorama of images, covering a field of view just under 180 degrees from left to right, with the panoramic camera on Martian days (sols) 594, 595, and 597 (Sept. 4, 5, and 7, 2005) of its exploration of Gusev Crater on Mars. This is an approximately true-color rendering generated using the camera's 750-nanometer, 530-nanometer, and 430-nanometer filters. | |
This image from NASA's Mars Odyssey is of the south polar cap shows the tip of a trough and the surface surrounding it. | Context imageThis VIS image of the south polar cap shows the tip of a trough and the surface surrounding it.Orbit Number: 40448 Latitude: -86.0777 Longitude: 290.428 Instrument: VIS Captured: 2011-01-26 18:39Please see the THEMIS Data Citation Note for details on crediting THEMIS images.NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory manages the 2001 Mars Odyssey mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, 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. | |
This image from NASA's Mars Odyssey shows one of several craters located on the floor of the much larger Tikhonravov Crater in Terra Sabaea. | Context imageToday's VIS image shows one of several craters located on the floor of the much larger Tikhonravov Crater in Terra Sabaea. Named for Russian rocket scientist, Mikhail Tikhonravov, the crater is thought to have been the location of a large lake, which may have laid down layers of material now exposed on the margins of this pedestal crater. A pedestal crater is formed by removal of surface materials around a resistant layer of ejecta, eventually leaving the crater and ejecta as a mesa or plateau on the lower elevation base surface.Orbit Number: 78401 Latitude: 12.9296 Longitude: 34.4892 Instrument: VIS Captured: 2019-08-17 20:32Please see the THEMIS Data Citation Note for details on crediting THEMIS images.NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory manages the 2001 Mars Odyssey mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, 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. | |
NASA's Mars Global Surveyor shows a stair-stepped mound of sedimentary rock on the floor of a large impact crater in western Arabia Terra on Mars. A circular mound and other nearby mesas and knobs are present. | MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-429, 22 July 2003This April 2003 Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) image shows a stair-stepped mound of sedimentary rock (right of center) on the floor of a large impact crater in western Arabia Terra near 11.0°N, 4.4°W. Sedimentary rock outcrops are common in the craters of this region. The repeated thickness and uniformity of the layers that make up this mound suggest that their depositional environment was one in which cyclic or episodic events occurred over some period of time. The sediments might have been deposited in a lake, or they may have settled directly out of the atmosphere. Most of the layered material was later eroded away, leaving this circular mound and the other nearby mesas and knobs. The image is illuminated by sunlight from the lower left. | |
This image from NASA's 2001 Mars Odyssey spacecraft is of Lismore Crater. This crater, located in Chryse Planitia, is relatively unmodified, meaning it appears very much like it did when it first formed. | Context imageToday's image is of Lismore Crater. This crater, located in Chryse Planitia, is relatively unmodified, meaning it appears very much like it did when it first formed.Orbit Number: 45965 Latitude: 27.0983 Longitude: 318.503 Instrument: VIS Captured: 2012-04-24 23:55Please see the THEMIS Data Citation Note for details on crediting THEMIS images.NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory manages the 2001 Mars Odyssey mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, 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. | |
This image released on Dec 2, 2004 from NASA's 2001 Mars Odyssey shows Olympica Fossae, located closer to Alba Patera on Mars. A deep main channel and nearby collapse channels are seen. | 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.Image information: VIS instrument. Latitude 24.5, Longitude 245.4 East (114.6 West). 19 meter/pixel resolution.Note: this THEMIS visual image has not been radiometrically nor geometrically calibrated for this preliminary release. An empirical correction has been performed to remove instrumental effects. A linear shift has been applied in the cross-track and down-track direction to approximate spacecraft and planetary motion. Fully calibrated and geometrically projected images will be released through the Planetary Data System in accordance with Project policies at a later time.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. | |
NASA's Mars Global Surveyor acquired this image on April 20, 1998. Shown here are layered materials in the walls and on the floors of the enormous Valles Marineris system. | One of the most striking discoveries of the Mars Global Surveyor mission has been the identification of thousands of meters/feet of layers within the wall rock of the enormous martian canyon system, Valles Marineris.Valles Marineris was first observed in 1972 by the Mariner 9 spacecraft, from which the troughs get their name: Valles--valleys, Marineris--Mariner.Some hints of layering in both the canyon walls and within some deposits on the canyon floors were seen in Mariner 9 and Viking orbiter images from the 1970s. The Mars Orbiter Camera on board Mars Global Surveyor has been examining these layers at much higher resolution than was available previously.MOC images led to the realization that there are layers in the walls that go down to great depths. An example of the wall rock layers can be seen in MOC image 8403, shown above (C).MOC images also reveal amazing layered outcrops on the floors of some of the Valles Marineris canyons. Particularly noteworthy is MOC image 23304 (D, above), which shows extensive, horizontally-bedded layers exposed in buttes and mesas on the floor of western Candor Chasma. These layered rocks might be the same material as is exposed in the chasm walls (as in 8403--C, above), or they might be rocks that formed by deposition (from water, wind, and/or volcanism) long after Candor Chasma opened up.In addition to layered materials in the walls and on the floors of the Valles Marineris system, MOC images are helping to refine our classification of geologic features that occur within the canyons. For example, MOC image 25205 (E, above), shows the southern tip of a massive, tongue-shaped massif (a mountainous ridge) that was previously identified as a layered deposit. However, this MOC image does not show layering. The material has been sculpted by wind and mass-wasting--downslope movement of debris--but no obvious layers were exposed by these processes.Valles Marineris a fascinating region on Mars that holds much potential to reveal information about the early history and evolution of the red planet. The MOC Science Team is continuing to examine the wealth of new data and planning for new Valles Marineris targets once the Mapping Phase of the Mars Global Surveyor mission commences in March 1999.This image: Massive (non-layered) material exposed in central Candor Chasma. MOC image 25205 subframe shown at 11.7 meters (38.4 feet) per pixel resolution. Image shows the southern tip of a massive "interior deposit" that points like a giant tongue from Ophir Chasma (to the north) down into the center of Candor Chasma. The ridged and grooved bright unit is the "interior deposit." South of this ridged unit is a low elevation surface mantled by dark dunes and sand. Image covers an area approximately 5.7 by 5.7 kilometers (3.5 x 3.5 miles). North is approximately up, illumination is from the lower right. Image 25205 was obtained during Mars Global Surveyor's 252nd orbit at 2:45 p.m. (PDT) on April 20, 1998.Malin Space Science Systems and the California Institute of Technology built the MOC using spare hardware from the Mars Observer mission. MSSS operates the camera from its facilities in San Diego, CA. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory's Mars Surveyor Operations Project operates the Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft with its industrial partner, Lockheed Martin Astronautics, from facilities in Pasadena, CA and Denver, CO. | |
This view from the Mast Camera (Mastcam) in NASA's Curiosity Mars rover shows the 'Marias Pass' area where a lower and older geological unit of mudstone. | Annotated VersionClick on the image for larger viewDownload the full resolution annotated TIFF fileThis view from the Mast Camera (Mastcam) in NASA's Curiosity Mars rover shows the "Marias Pass" area where a lower and older geological unit of mudstone -- the pale zone in the center of the image -- lies in contact with an overlying geological unit of sandstone.Just before Curiosity reached Marias Pass, the rover's laser-firing Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) instrument examined a rock found to be rich in silica, a mineral-forming chemical. This scene combines several images taken on May 22, 2015, during the 992nd Martian day, or sol, of Curiosity's work on Mars. The scene is presented with a color adjustment that approximates white balancing, to resemble how the rocks and sand would appear under daytime lighting conditions on Earth. Figure 1 includes a scale bar of 2 meters (79 inches). Malin Space Science Systems, San Diego, built and operates the rover's Mastcam. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, manages the Mars Science Laboratory Project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. JPL designed and built the project's Curiosity rover.For more information about the Mars Science Laboratory mission and the mission's Curiosity rover, visit http://www.nasa.gov/msl and http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl. | |
NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit's view of the rocky and bumpy terrain that lies between it and the large crater dubbed 'Bonneville.' A large rock called 'Humphries' can be seen. | This image shows the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit's view of the rocky terrain that lies between it and its intended target, the large crater dubbed "Bonneville." The landscape here is roughly two times as bumpy and more difficult to traverse than that crossed so far. Spirit has currently stopped to examine the soil and rocks at a region nicknamed "Middle Ground." The rover is 98 meters (322 feet) away from "Bonneville" and facing northeast. The large rock called "Humphries" can be seen in the lower right corner. The image was taken on the 53rd martian day, or sol, of Spirit's mission by the rover's panoramic camera. | |
This image from NASA's Mars Odyssey shows a small unnamed channel. This channel is located along the topographic boundary between highlands of Terra Sabaea and lowlands of Protonilus Mensae. | Context imageNear the top of today's VIS image is a small unnamed channel. This channel is located along the topographic boundary between highlands of Terra Sabaea and lowlands of Protonilus Mensae.Orbit Number: 85301 Latitude: 39.2867 Longitude: 51.0852 Instrument: VIS Captured: 2021-03-08 00:03Please see the THEMIS Data Citation Note for details on crediting THEMIS images.NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory manages the 2001 Mars Odyssey mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, 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. | |
This vertical-projection mosaic was created from images that NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit acquired May 8, 2004.The rover was on its way to the 'Columbia Hills,' which can be seen on the horizon. | This vertical-projection view was created from navigation camera images that NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit acquired on sol 123 (May 8, 2004). Spirit is sitting at site 44. The rover is on the way to the "Columbia Hills," which can be seen on the horizon. To this point, Spirit has driven a total of 1,830 meters (1.14 miles). The hills are less than 1.6 kilometers (1 mile) away, and the rover might reach them by mid-June. | |
The lava flows in this image from NASA's 2001 Mars Odyssey spacecraft are part of the extensive lava plains of Daedalia Planum. | Context imageThe lava flows in today's VIS image are part of the extensive lava plains of Daedalia Planum.Orbit Number: 47479 Latitude: -22.2275 Longitude: 239.677 Instrument: VIS Captured: 2012-08-27 13:00Please see the THEMIS Data Citation Note for details on crediting THEMIS images.NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory manages the 2001 Mars Odyssey mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, 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. | |
Sweeping the Dust Away | NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit brushed the dust away from a rock target on an outcrop dubbed "Clovis" prior to grinding a hole and conducting mineral studies. This view is a mosaic combining four frames that Spirit took with its microscopic imager on martian sol 214 (Aug. 9, 2004). | |
This image from NASA's Mars Odyssey shows a region of wind etched materials. In regions of poorly cemented surface materials it is possible to create large features due to just the action of the wind. | Context imageToday's VIS image shows a region of wind etched materials. In regions of poorly cemented surface materials it is possible to create large features due to just the action of the wind. The equatorial region between Olympus Mons and Apollinaris Mons is dominated by wind etched regions. The direction of the wind aligns with the ridges and valleys. The dominant wind direction in this region is southeast to northwest; however, other wind directions can occur within a localized region.Orbit Number: 94405 Latitude: -0.344951 Longitude: 212.207 Instrument: VIS Captured: 2023-03-27 14:40Please see the THEMIS Data Citation Note for details on crediting THEMIS images.NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory manages the 2001 Mars Odyssey mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, 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. | |
The unnamed channels in this image captured by NASA's 2001 Mars Odyssey spacecraft are located in northern Arabia Terra. | Context imageThe unnamed channels in this VIS image are located in northern Arabia Terra.Orbit Number: 54291 Latitude: 38.2988 Longitude: 29.8555 Instrument: VIS Captured: 2014-03-11 04:26Please see the THEMIS Data Citation Note for details on crediting THEMIS images.NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory manages the 2001 Mars Odyssey mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, 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. | |
This image captured by NASA's 2001 Mars Odyssey spacecraft shows dust devil tracks on the plains of Aonia Terra. | Context image Today's VIS image shows dust devil tracks on the plains of Aonia Terra. As the dust devil moves across the surface it scours the fine dust particles, revealing the darker rock surface below.Orbit Number: 66800 Latitude: -65.2605 Longitude: 239.338 Instrument: VIS Captured: 2017-01-04 04:52Please see the THEMIS Data Citation Note for details on crediting THEMIS images.NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory manages the 2001 Mars Odyssey mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, 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. | |
This image taken by NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander's Surface Stereo Imager shows the trenches, labeled Dodo-Goldilocks and Snow White, and the areas that were identified for digging, labeled Cupboard and Neverland. | This image taken by NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander's Surface Stereo Imager shows the current trenches, labeled Dodo-Goldilocks and Snow White, and the areas identified for future digging, labeled Cupboard and Neverland.The Phoenix Mission is led by the University of Arizona, Tucson, on behalf of NASA. Project management of the mission is by NASA_x0092_s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. Spacecraft development is by Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver.Photojournal Note: As planned, the Phoenix lander, which landed May 25, 2008 23:53 UTC, ended communications in November 2008, about six months after landing, when its solar panels ceased operating in the dark Martian winter. | |
The HiRISE camera aboard NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter was able to capture this image of the final location of the parachute that helped slow down NASA's Perseverance rover during its landing on the surface of Mars. | The High Resolution Imaging Experiment (HiRISE) camera aboard NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) was able to capture this image of the final location of the parachute that helped slow down NASA's Perseverance rover during its landing on the surface of Mars. It is a close-up version of a larger image showing several parts of the Mars 2020 mission landing system that got the rover safely on the ground, PIA24333. The image was taken on Feb. 19, 2021.These close-ups were processed to make them easier to see. The insets showing the descent stage and parachute have had color added and include data from the infrared band of light.MRO's mission is managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of Caltech in Pasadena, California, for NASA's Science Mission Directorate. Lockheed Martin Space in Denver, built the spacecraft. The University of Arizona provided and operates the High Resolution Imaging Experiment (HiRISE).A key objective for Perseverance's mission on Mars is astrobiology, including the search for signs of ancient microbial life. The rover will characterize the planet's geology and past climate, pave the way for human exploration of the Red Planet, and be the first mission to collect and cache Martian rock and regolith (broken rock and dust).Subsequent NASA missions, in cooperation with ESA (European Space Agency), would send spacecraft to Mars to collect these sealed samples from the surface and return them to Earth for in-depth analysis.The Mars 2020 Perseverance mission is part of NASA's Moon to Mars exploration approach, which includes Artemis missions to the Moon that will help prepare for human exploration of the Red Planet.NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which is managed for NASA by Caltech in Pasadena, California, built and manages operations of the Perseverance rover.For more about Perseverance: mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/ | |
This image from NASA's Mars Odyssey spacecraft is of a dune field on Mars located in Holden Crater. Sand seas on Earth are often called ergs, an Arabic name for dune field. | Our topic for the weeks of April 4 and April 11 is dunes on Mars. We will look at the north polar sand sea and at isolated dune fields at lower latitudes. Sand seas on Earth are often called "ergs," an Arabic name for dune field. A sand sea differs from a dune field in two ways: 1) a sand sea has a large regional extent, and 2) the individual dunes are large in size and complex in form.A common location for dune fields on Mars is in the basin of large craters. This dune field is located in Holden Crater at 25 degrees South atitude.Image information: VIS instrument. Latitude -25.5, Longitude 326.8 East (33.2 West). 19 meter/pixel resolution.Note: this THEMIS visual image has not been radiometrically nor geometrically calibrated for this preliminary release. An empirical correction has been performed to remove instrumental effects. A linear shift has been applied in the cross-track and down-track direction to approximate spacecraft and planetary motion. Fully calibrated and geometrically projected images will be released through the Planetary Data System in accordance with Project policies at a later time.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. | |
This is the first color image of Mars taken by the panoramic camera onboard NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit. It is the highest resolution image ever taken on the surface of another planet. | This is the first color image of Mars taken by the panoramic camera on the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit. It is the highest resolution image ever taken on the surface of another planet. | |
This image from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shows features commonly found in dusty areas: impacts, slope streaks and bed-forms. | Map Projected Browse ImageClick on the image for larger versionDusty regions on Mars are often considered to look boring in HiRISE images because the dust obscures surface features. However, new meteor impacts are found most easily in dusty regions such as the one in this image because the new impacts blast away the dust at the surface, leaving obvious dark spots that can be seen in images from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Context Camera (CTX). HiRISE will then take a close up image of the dark spots to image any new craters that have formed as a result of the impact.As well as confirming a new impact, this image also showed other features commonly found in dusty areas: slope streaks and bed-forms. A close-up picture of the roughly 2.5-kilometer-diameter crater at the bottom of the main image shows ridges on the crater floor where dust has become trapped, and bright and dark streaks down the crater walls where dust has cascaded down the slope. HiRISE is one of six instruments on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. The University of Arizona, Tucson, operates HiRISE, which was built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., Boulder, Colo. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. | |
NASA's Mars Pathfinder took this image of surrounding terrain in the mid-morning on Mars (2:30 PM Pacific Daylight Time) in 1997. Part of the small rover, Sojourner, is visible on the left side of the picture. | The Imager for Mars Pathfinder (IMP) took this image of surrounding terrain in the mid-morning on Mars (2:30 PM Pacific Daylight Time) earlier today. Part of the small rover, Sojourner, is visible on the left side of the picture. The tan cylinder to the right of the rover is one of two rolled-up ramps by which the rover will descend to the ground. The white, billowy material in the center of the picture is part of the airbag system. Many rocks of different shapes and sizes are visible between the lander and the horizon. Two hills are visible on the horizon. The notch on the left side of the leftmost conical hill is an artifact of the processing of this picture.Pathfinder, a low-cost Discovery mission, is the first of a new fleet of spacecraft that are planned to explore Mars over the next ten years. Mars Global Surveyor, already en route, arrives at Mars on September 11 to begin a two year orbital reconnaissance of the planet's composition, topography, and climate. Additional orbiters and landers will follow every 26 months.Mars Pathfinder is the second in NASA's Discovery program of low-cost spacecraft with highly focused science goals. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA, developed and manages the Mars Pathfinder mission for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. JPL is an operating division of the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). The Imager for Mars Pathfinder (IMP) was developed by the University of Arizona Lunar and Planetary Laboratory under contract to JPL. Peter Smith is the Principal Investigator.
Photojournal note: Sojourner spent 83 days of a planned seven-day mission exploring the Martian terrain, acquiring images, and taking chemical, atmospheric and other measurements. The final data transmission received from Pathfinder was at 10:23 UTC on September 27, 1997. Although mission managers tried to restore full communications during the following five months, the successful mission was terminated on March 10, 1998. | |
NASA's Mars Global Surveyor shows | 25 April 2005This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) image shows terrain in eastern Isidis Planitia that is very heavily peppered with impact craters of diameters of a few hundred meters (a few hundred yards) or less. One aim of the MGS MOC Picture of the Day series is to showcase the rich variety of martian surfaces; this one should be compared with other Pictures of the Day in recent weeks, as most of these are shown covering an area of about the same width, approximately 3 kilometers (1.9 miles).Location near: 17.5°N, 263.1°W Image width: ~3 km (~1.9 mi) Illumination from: lower left Season: Northern Summer | |
NASA's Mars Global Surveyor shows a portion of the ancient Auqakuh Vallis system on Mars. The valley was cut into layered bedrock. It was once much deeper than today, but much of the surrounding materials have been eroded away. | MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-491, 22 September 2003Auqakuh Vallis is an ancient valley system that might have once been a conduit for liquid water flowing north, across northeastern Arabia Terra, toward the Nilosyrtis region. This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) image shows a portion of the Auqakuh Vallis system. The valley was cut into layered bedrock. It was once much deeper than today, but much of the surrounding materials have been eroded away. Windblown sediments now cover the floor of the valley, a reflection of the parched conditions of the modern martian environment. This picture is located near 29.1°N, 299.6°W, and covers an area 3 km (1.9 mi) across. Sunlight illuminates the scene from the lower left. | |
This color panorama shows a 360-degree view of the landing site of NASA's Curiosity rover, including the highest part of Mount Sharp visible to the rover. | Raw VersionClick on the image for larger version
This color panorama shows a 360-degree view of the landing site of NASA's Curiosity rover, including the highest part of Mount Sharp visible to the rover. That part of Mount Sharp is approximately 12 miles (20 kilometers) away from the rover. The images were obtained by the rover's 34-millimeter Mast Camera. The mosaic, which stretches about 29,000 pixels across by 7,000 pixels high, includes 130 images taken on Aug. 8 and an additional 10 images taken on Aug. 18. These images were shot before the camera was fully characterized.Scientists enhanced the color in one version to show the Martian scene as it would appear under the lighting conditions we have on Earth, which helps in analyzing the terrain. A raw version is also available.JPL manages the Mars Science Laboratory/Curiosity for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The rover was designed, developed and assembled at JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.For more about NASA's Curiosity mission, visit: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/msl, http://www.nasa.gov/mars, and http://marsprogram.jpl.nasa.gov/msl. | |
This small mesa is one of several surrounded by sand dunes in Noctis Labyrinthyus, an extensively fractured region on the western end of Valles Marineris, as seen by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. | Map Projected Browse ImageClick on the image for larger versionThis image from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shows a small (0.4 kilometer) mesa, one of several surrounded by sand dunes in Noctis Labyrinthyus, an extensively fractured region on the western end of Valles Marineris.Heavily eroded, with clusters of boulders and sand dunes on its surface, this layered mesa is probably comprised of sedimentary deposits that are being exhumed as it erodes. The layers themselves are visible as faint bands along the lower left edge of the mesa.The map is projected here at a scale of 50 centimeters (19.7 inches) per pixel. [The original image scale is 20.7 centimeters (19.6 inches) per pixel (with 2 x 2 binning); objects on the order of 158 centimeters (62.2 inches) across are resolved.] North is up.The University of Arizona, Tucson, operates HiRISE, which was built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., Boulder, Colo. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of Caltech in Pasadena, California, manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. | |
NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity shows the outcrop that sits just inside the small crater where the rover landed. The region dubbed 'El Capitan,' is where scientists gained their first clues to the outcrop's watery past. | This image taken by the Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity's panoramic camera shows the outcrop that sits just inside the small crater where the rover landed. Highlighted in black and white is the region dubbed "El Capitan," where scientists gained their first clues to the outcrop's watery past. The color portion of the image is low-resolution, and the black and white portion is high-resolution. | |
Time for a Change; Spirit's View on Sol 1843 | NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit used its navigation camera to take the images that have been combined into this full-circle view of the rover's surroundings during the 1,843rd Martian day, or sol, of Spirit's surface mission (March 10, 2009). South is in the middle. North is at both ends. The rover had driven 36 centimeters downhill earlier on Sol 1854, but had not been able to get free of ruts in soft material that had become an obstacle to getting around the northeastern corner of the low plateau called "Home Plate."The Sol 1854 drive, following two others in the preceding four sols that also achieved little progress in the soft ground, prompted the rover team to switch to a plan of getting around Home Plate counterclockwise, instead of clockwise. The drive direction in subsequent sols was westward past the northern edge of Home Plate. This view is presented as a cylindrical projection with geometric seam correction. | |
This image from NASA's Mars Odyssey shows a small section of Ma'adim Valles. Ma'adim Valles is located in Terra Cimmeria and empties into Gusev Crater, the home of the MER Spirit rover. | Context imageThis VIS image shows a small section of Ma'adim Valles. Ma'adim Valles is located in Terra Cimmeria and empties into Gusev Crater, the home of the MER Spirit rover.Orbit Number: 75277 Latitude: -22.7745 Longitude: 176.665 Instrument: VIS Captured: 2018-12-03 14:00Please see the THEMIS Data Citation Note for details on crediting THEMIS images.NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory manages the 2001 Mars Odyssey mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, 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. | |
This image, part of an images as art series from NASA's 2001 Mars Odyssey released on Feb 2, 2004 shows an interesting symbol in the bottom-left corner that looks like a peace sign on Mars. | Released 2 February 2004Humanity is a very visual species. We rely on our eyes to tell us what is going on in the world around us. Put any image in front of a person and that person will examine the picture looking for anything familiar. Even if the examiner has no idea what he/she is looking at in a picture, he/she will still be able to make a statement about the picture, usually preceded by the words "it looks like..." The image above is part of the surface of Mars, but is presented for its artistic value rather than its scientific value. When first viewed, this image solicited a statement that "it looks like..." something seen in everyday life.This particular image contains an interesting symbol in the bottom-left corner; perhaps it's a peace sign.Note: this THEMIS visual image has not been radiometrically nor geometrically calibrated for this preliminary release. An empirical correction has been performed to remove instrumental effects. A linear shift has been applied in the cross-track and down-track direction to approximate spacecraft and planetary motion. Fully calibrated and geometrically projected images will be released through the Planetary Data System in accordance with Project policies at a later time.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. | |
NASA's Mars Global Surveyor shows an ancient valley in far northwestern Arabia Terra, near the Cydonia region on Mars. Large, windblown ripples occur on the valley floor. | 10 January 2004This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) image shows an ancient valley in far northwestern Arabia Terra, near the Cydonia region. Large, windblown ripples occur on the valley floor. This valley is located near 33.2°N, 10.1°W. The picture covers an area about 3 km (1.9 mi) across, and is illuminated by sunlight from the left/lower left. | |
This image from NASA's Mars Odyssey shows part of Terra Sabaea. | Context imageThe THEMIS VIS camera contains 5 filters. The data from different filters can be combined in multiple ways to create a false color image. These false color images may reveal subtle variations of the surface not easily identified in a single band image. Today's false color image shows part of Terra Sabaea.The THEMIS VIS camera is capable of capturing color images of the Martian surface using five different color filters. In this mode of operation, the spatial resolution and coverage of the image must be reduced to accommodate the additional data volume produced from using multiple filters. To make a color image, three of the five filter images (each in grayscale) are selected. Each is contrast enhanced and then converted to a red, green, or blue intensity image. These three images are then combined to produce a full color, single image. Because the THEMIS color filters don't span the full range of colors seen by the human eye, a color THEMIS image does not represent true color. Also, because each single-filter image is contrast enhanced before inclusion in the three-color image, the apparent color variation of the scene is exaggerated. Nevertheless, the color variation that does appear is representative of some change in color, however subtle, in the actual scene. Note that the long edges of THEMIS color images typically contain color artifacts that do not represent surface variation.Orbit Number: 85226 Latitude: 26.2646 Longitude: 56.742 Instrument: VIS Captured: 2021-03-01 19:46Please see the THEMIS Data Citation Note for details on crediting THEMIS images.NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory manages the 2001 Mars Odyssey mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, 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. | |
This image from NASA's Mars Odyssey spacecraft shows windstreaks features caused by the interaction of wind and topographic landforms. These windstreaks are located northeast of Olympus Mons and southwest of Alba Patera. | Windstreaks are features caused by the interaction of wind and topographic landforms. The raised rims and bowls of impact craters causes a complex interaction such that the wind vortex in the lee of the crater can both scour away the surface dust and deposit it back in the center of the lee. If you look closely, you will see evidence of this in a darker "rim" enclosing a brighter interior. These windstreaks are located northeast of Olympus Mons and southwest of Alba Patera. The lava flows the windstreaks occur on most likely originated from Alba Patera.Image information: VIS instrument. Latitude 31.3, Longitude 235.1 East (124.9 West). 36 meter/pixel resolution.Note: this THEMIS visual image has not been radiometrically nor geometrically calibrated for this preliminary release. An empirical correction has been performed to remove instrumental effects. A linear shift has been applied in the cross-track and down-track direction to approximate spacecraft and planetary motion. Fully calibrated and geometrically projected images will be released through the Planetary Data System in accordance with Project policies at a later time.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. | |
This image from NASA's Mars Odyssey shows part of the rim of Holden Crater. Located in Noachis Terra, Holden Crater is 152km (94 miles) in diameter. | Context imageThe THEMIS VIS camera contains 5 filters. The data from different filters can be combined in multiple ways to create a false color image. These false color images may reveal subtle variations of the surface not easily identified in a single band image. Today's false color image shows part of the rim of Holden Crater. Located in Noachis Terra, Holden Crater is 152km (94 miles) in diameter.Orbit Number: 72777 Latitude: -26.7099 Longitude: 327.236 Instrument: VIS Captured: 2018-05-11 15:45Please see the THEMIS Data Citation Note for details on crediting THEMIS images.NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory manages the 2001 Mars Odyssey mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, 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. | |
A dance-step pattern is visible in the wheel tracks near the left edge of this scene recorded by NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity on Mars on April 1, 2011. | A dance-step pattern is visible in the wheel tracks near the left edge of this scene recorded by the navigation camera on NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity during the 2,554th Martian day, or sol, of the rover's work on Mars (April 1, 2011). The pattern comes from use of a new technique for Opportunity to autonomously check for hazards in its way while driving backwards. For scale, the distance between the parallel tracks of the left and right wheels is about 1 meter (about 40 inches).The rover team routinely tells Opportunity to drive backwards because experience has shown this is less likely to increase the amount current drawn by the drive motor in the right-front wheel. More than two years ago, the right-front wheel on Opportunity began showing signs of drawing more current than other wheels. Opportunity's twin, Spirit, had shown similar elevated current in the right-front wheel for more than a year before that wheel on Spirit stopped working in 2006. The view looks back after Sol 2554's drive at the tracks imprinted by the drive. The drive covered at total of 118.6 meters (389 feet). Rover drivers had planned the drive based on images taken from the rover's Sol 2553 location. The first portion -- which imprinted the more distant, simpler, tracks -- was a backward "blind" drive. Rover drivers command blind drives -- either forward or backward -- when they can assess the safety of the terrain well enough from the images taken at the drive's starting point that they don't need the rover to pause and look for obstacles along the route. For the Sol 2554 drive over flat ground, the drivers chose a blind drive of 100 meters (328 feet). They commanded Opportunity to begin using backward autonomous navigation after it reached the end of the blind drive on that sol. That "backward autonav" driving imprinted the nearest portion of the tracks visible here.The rover team began using the backward autonav strategy last year as a modification of forward autonav, which the team has used since the rovers' first year on Mars. In autonav mode, the rover pauses periodically during a drive, uses its stereo navigation camera to view the route in the intended drive direction, analyzes the images for potential hazards in the route, and makes a decision about what to do based on that analysis. One catch, when driving backwards, is that the navigation camera's view is partially blocked over the rear of the rover by the low-gain antenna. So, lest a hazard be hidden behind that antenna, the backward autonav technique includes turning the rover 17.5 degrees away from the drive direction just before taking the navigation camera images. This gives the camera an unobstructed view in the drive direction. This little maneuver -- repeated every 1.2 meters -- is what created the dance-step pattern in the foreground portion of the rover tracks in this image.In forward autonav, Opportunity can plot its own way around an obstacle and continue driving. In backward autonav, Opportunity just ends the drive for the day if the onboard analysis of images detects a hazard in the route. On the level terrain Opportunity has been crossing this spring on the trek from Santa Maria crater toward Endeavour crater, obstacles are few, so backward autonav has significantly extended the distance the rover can cover in one sol's driving.This mosaic combining several pointings of the navigation camera is presented in a cylindrical projection. The center of the image is toward the northeast, and the full view covers a sweep of 252 degrees, from westward on the left to southeastward on the right. Opportunity has been exploring the Meridiani Planum region of Mars since early 2004 in a mission originally planned to last for three months. Both Opportunity and Spirit have made important discoveries about wet environments on ancient Mars that may have been favorable for supporting microbial life. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Mars Exploration Rover Project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. | |
This image from NASA's Mars Odyssey shows several dark streaks near the summit of Alba Mons. | Context imageThis VIS image shows several dark streaks near the summit of Alba Mons. Similar large, dark streaks are found on all the Tharsis volcanoes. This type of dark streak does not form due to surface winds flowing around topographic features like craters. Instead these streaks seem to form from in response to large slope winds blowing over the volcano. Such winds are called orographic winds, and are caused by air mass movement around mountains.Orbit Number: 93873 Latitude: 41.5398 Longitude: 251.186 Instrument: VIS Captured: 2023-02-11 20:09Please see the THEMIS Data Citation Note for details on crediting THEMIS images.NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory manages the 2001 Mars Odyssey mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, 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. | |
This image from NASA's 2001 Mars Odyssey spacecraft shows a large portion of the dune field located in the floor of Rabe Crater. | Context imageToday's VIS image show a large portion of the dune field located in the floor of Rabe Crater.Orbit Number: 58024 Latitude: -43.6968 Longitude: 34.8234 Instrument: VIS Captured: 2015-01-12 09:48Please see the THEMIS Data Citation Note for details on crediting THEMIS images.NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory manages the 2001 Mars Odyssey mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, 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. | |
NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit acquired this microscopic imager view of its capture magnet on April 6, 2004. The magnets' primary purpose is to collect the martian magnetic dust so it can be analyzied with the rover's Moessbauer spectrometers. | NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit acquired this microscopic imager view of its capture magnet on sol 92 (April 6, 2004). Both Spirit and the Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity are equipped with a number of magnets. The capture magnet, as seen here, has a stronger charge than its sidekick, the filter magnet. The lower-powered filter magnet captures only the most magnetic airborne dust with the strongest charges, while the capture magnet picks up all magnetic airborne dust.The magnets' primary purpose is to collect the martian magnetic dust so that scientists can analyze it with the rovers' Moessbauer spectrometers. While there is plenty of dust on the surface of Mars, it is difficult to confirm where it came from, and when it was last airborne. Because scientists are interested in learning about the properties of the dust in the atmosphere, they devised this dust-collection experiment.The capture magnet is about 4.5 centimeters (1.8 inches) in diameter and is constructed with a central cylinder and three rings, each with alternating orientations of magnetization. Scientists have been monitoring the continual accumulation of dust since the beginning of the mission with panoramic camera and microscopic imager images. They had to wait until enough dust accumulated before they could get a Moessbauer spectrometer analysis. The results of that analysis, performed on sol 92, have not been sent back to Earth yet. | |
This cut-out from a color panorama image taken by NASA's Curiosity rover shows the effects of the descent stage's rocket engines blasting the ground. It comes from the left side of the thumbnail panorama obtained by Curiosity's Mast Camera. | This cut-out from a color panorama image taken by NASA's Curiosity rover shows the effects of the descent stage's rocket engines blasting the ground. It comes from the left side of the thumbnail panorama obtained by Curiosity's Mast Camera. (See PIA16029.)
JPL manages the Mars Science Laboratory/Curiosity for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The rover was designed, developed and assembled at JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology
in Pasadena.
For more about NASA's Curiosity mission, visit: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/msl, http://www.nasa.gov/mars, and
http://marsprogram.jpl.nasa.gov/msl. | |
The THEMIS camera contains 5 filters. The data from different filters can be combined in multiple ways to create a false color image. This image from NASA's 2001 Mars Odyssey spacecraft shows part of Capri Mensa. | Context imageThe THEMIS camera contains 5 filters. The data from different filters can be combined in multiple ways to create a false color image. These false color images may reveal subtle variations of the surface not easily identified in a single band image. Today's false color image shows part of Capri Mensa.Orbit Number: 35445 Latitude: -13.2721 Longitude: 312.893 Instrument: VIS Captured: 2009-12-10 19:37Please see the THEMIS Data Citation Note for details on crediting THEMIS images.NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory manages the 2001 Mars Odyssey mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, 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. | |
This image from the Surface Stereo Imager on NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander shows morning frost inside the 'Snow White' trench dug by the lander, in addition to subsurface ice exposed by use of a rasp on the floor of the trench. | This image from the Surface Stereo Imager on NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander shows morning frost inside the "Snow White" trench dug by the lander, in addition to subsurface ice exposed by use of a rasp on the floor of the trench.The camera took this image at about 9 a.m. local solar time during the 113th Martian day of the mission (Sept. 18, 2008). Bright material near and below the four-by-four set of rasp holes in the upper half of the image is water-ice exposed by rasping and scraping in the trench earlier the same morning. Other bright material especially around the edges of the trench, is frost. Earlier in the mission, when the sun stayed above the horizon all night, morning frost was not evident in the trench.This image is presented in false color that enhances the visibility of the frost. The trench is 4 to 5 centimeters (about 2 inches) deep, about 23 centimeters (9 inches) wide.Phoenix landed on a Martian arctic plain on May 25, 2008. The mission is led by the University of Arizona, Tucson, on behalf of NASA. Project management of the mission is led by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. Spacecraft development was by Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver.Photojournal Note: As planned, the Phoenix lander, which landed May 25, 2008 23:53 UTC, ended communications in November 2008, about six months after landing, when its solar panels ceased operating in the dark Martian winter. | |
This image acquired on January 23, 2019 by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, shows the western portion of a well-preserved (recent) impact crater in Ladon Basin. | Map Projected Browse ImageClick on image for larger versionThis image covers the western portion of a well-preserved (recent) impact crater in Ladon Basin. Ladon is filled by diverse materials including chemically-altered sediments and unaltered lava, so the impact event ejected and deposited a wide range of elements. This image is the first of a pair of images for stereo coverage, so check out the stereo anaglyph when completed.The map is projected here at a scale of 50 centimeters (19.7 inches) per pixel. [The original image scale is 52.4 centimeters (20.6 inches) per pixel (with 2 x 2 binning); objects on the order of 157 centimeters (61.8 inches) across are resolved.] North is up.The University of Arizona, Tucson, operates HiRISE, which was built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., Boulder, Colorado. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of Caltech in Pasadena, California, manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. | |
This image from NASA's 2001 Mars Odyssey spacecraft is located on the margin of Tempe Terra near Chryse Planitia. Several channels are visible as well as tectonic features. | Context imageThis VIS image is located on the margin of Tempe Terra near Chryse Planitia. Several channels are visible as well as tectonic features. The linear feature below the channel is most likely a graben, where two bounding faults cause the interior material to be lower that the surroundings.Orbit Number: 62101 Latitude: 39.2825 Longitude: 306.171 Instrument: VIS Captured: 2015-12-14 04:09Please see the THEMIS Data Citation Note for details on crediting THEMIS images.NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory manages the 2001 Mars Odyssey mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, 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. | |
From its perch high on a ridge, NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity recorded this image of a Martian dust devil twisting through the valley below. | From its perch high on a ridge, NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity recorded this image of a Martian dust devil twisting through the valley below. The view looks back at the rover's tracks leading up the north-facing slope of "Knudsen Ridge," which forms part of the southern edge of "Marathon Valley."Opportunity took the image using its navigation camera (Navcam) on March 31, 2016, during the 4,332nd Martian day, or sol, of the rover's work on Mars.Dust devils were a common sight for Opportunity's twin rover, Spirit, in its outpost at Gusev Crater. Dust devils have been an uncommon sight for Opportunity though. Just as on Earth, a dust devil is created by a rising, rotating column of hot air. When the column whirls fast enough, it picks up tiny grains of dust from the ground, making the vortex visible.During the uphill drive to reach the top of Knudsen Ridge, Opportunity's tilt reached 32 degrees, the steepest ever for any rover on Mars. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Mars Exploration Rover Project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington.For more information about Opportunity, visit http://www.nasa.gov/rovers and http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov. | |
The boulder-strewn field of red rocks reaches to the horizon nearly two miles from NASA's Viking 2 on Mars' Utopian Plain. | The boulder-strewn field of red rocks reaches to the horizon nearly two miles from Viking 2 on Mars' Utopian Plain. Scientists believe the colors of the Martian surface and sky in this photo represent their true colors. Fine particles of red dust have settled on spacecraft surfaces. The salmon color of the sky is caused by dust particles suspended in the atmosphere. Color calibration charts for the cameras are mounted at three locations on the spacecraft. Note the blue star field and red stripes of the flag. The circular structure at top is the high-gain antenna, pointed toward Earth. Viking 2 landed September 3,1976, some 4600 miles from its twin, Viking 1, which touched down on July 20. | |
NASA's Mars Global Surveyor shows mesa tops and depressions formed in layered carbon dioxide ice in Mars' south polar residual cap. | 19 July 2004This full-resolution (1.5 meters, 5 feet, per pixel) Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) image shows mesa tops and depressions formed in layered carbon dioxide ice in the south polar residual cap. The image is located near 87.0°S, 341.9°W, and covers an area about 1.5 km (0.9 mi) wide. Sunlight illuminates the scene from the upper left. | |
This image acquired on May 11, 2022 by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shows a 280-kilometer diameter crater center that has experienced a long history of water activity. | Map Projected Browse ImageClick on image for larger versionThis 280-kilometer diameter crater center has experienced a long history of water activity. Within the crater is a heavily faulted and fractured terrain called Aram Chaos that consists of darker volcanic rocks that were disrupted as a result of water and/or magma withdrawal in the subsurface.Above this chaotic terrain are brighter materials made up of different kinds of sulfates that formed when water filled the crater. CRISM data collected along with HiRISE images indicate that the sulfates consist of monohydrated, polyhydrated, and ferric hydroxysulfate, with each composition representing a different geochemical environment within the waters that once resided within Aram Chaos. The map is projected here at a scale of 25 centimeters (9.8 inches) per pixel. (The original image scale is 28.6 centimeters [11.3 inches] per pixel [with 1 x 1 binning] to 57.1 centimeters [22.5 inches] per pixel [with 2 x 2 binning].) North is up.The University of Arizona, in Tucson, operates HiRISE, which was built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., in Boulder, Colorado. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of Caltech in Pasadena, California, manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. | |
The linear depressions (termed graben) in this image captured by NASA's 2001 Mars Odyssey spacecraft are part of Memnonia Fossae. | Context imageThe linear depressions (termed graben) in today's VIS image are part of Memnonia Fossae.Orbit Number: 56489 Latitude: -20.1391 Longitude: 205.186 Instrument: VIS Captured: 2014-09-08 01:16 Please see the THEMIS Data Citation Note for details on crediting THEMIS images.NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory manages the 2001 Mars Odyssey mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, 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. | |
Ladon Basin was a large impact structure that was filled in by the deposits from Ladon Valles, a major ancient river on Mars as seen in this image from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). | Map Projected Browse ImageClick on the image for larger versionLadon Basin was a large impact structure that was filled in by the deposits from Ladon Valles, a major ancient river on Mars as seen in this image from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO).These wet sediments were altered into minerals such as various clay minerals. Clays imply chemistry that may have been favorable for life on ancient Mars, if anything lived there, so this could be a good spot for future exploration by rovers and perhaps return of samples to Earth.The map is projected here at a scale of 50 centimeters (19.7 inches) per pixel. [The original image scale is 52.1 centimeters (20.5 inches) per pixel (with 2 x 2 binning); objects on the order of 156 centimeters (61.4 inches) across are resolved.] North is up.The University of Arizona, Tucson, operates HiRISE, which was built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., Boulder, Colorado. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of Caltech in Pasadena, California, manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. | |
NASA's Mars Global Surveyor shows a dust devil that seen climbing the wall of a crater at 4.1°S, 9.5°W on May 21, 2002. This crater is in western Terra Meridiani on Mars. | MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-318, 8 August 2002One of the key elements of the Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) Extended Mission is to look for and monitor changes taking place on the planet over the course of a second--and, eventually, a third--martian year. MGS is now well into its second Mars year, which will draw to a close in December 2002. Among the changes the MOC has observed are streaks believed to be caused by the passage of dust devils. Thousands of MOC images show these streaks, dozens show that they change over time, but far fewer images have actually captured a dust devil in the act of creating a streak. At the center right of this image (above left) is a dust devil that, on May 21, 2002, was seen climbing the wall of a crater at 4.1°S, 9.5°W. This crater (above right) is in western Terra Meridiani. The dust devil was moving toward the northeast (upper right), leaving behind a dark trail where a thin coating of surficial dust was removed or disrupted as the dust devil advanced. Dust devils most commonly form after noon on days when the martian air is still (that is, when there isn't even a faint breeze). On such days, the ground is better able to heat up the air immediately above the surface. As the warmed near-surface air begins to rise, it also begins to spin, creating a vortex. The spinning column then moves across the surface and picks up loose dust (if any is present). The dust makes the vortex visible and gives it a tornado-like appearance. The dust devil in this image has a very short, dark shadow cast to the right of the bright column; this shadow is short because the sun was nearly overhead. | |
This polar projection image from NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity shows tracks from the drive extend northward across dark-toned sand ripples and light-toned patches of exposed bedrock in the Meridiani Planum region of Mars. | NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity used its navigation camera to take the images combined into this full-circle view of the rover's surroundings just after driving 104 meters (341 feet) on the 1,770th Martian day, or sol, of Opportunity's surface mission (January 15, 2009). This view is presented as a polar projection with geometric seam correction. North is at the top.Tracks from the drive extend northward across dark-toned sand ripples and light-toned patches of exposed bedrock in the Meridiani Planum region of Mars. For scale, the distance between the parallel wheel tracks is about 1 meter (about 40 inches).Prior to the Sol 1770 drive, Opportunity had driven less than a meter since Sol 1713 (November 17, 2008), while it used the tools on its robotic arm first to examine a meteorite called "Santorini" during weeks of restricted communication while the sun was nearly in line between Mars and Earth, then to examine bedrock and soil targets near Santorini.The rover's position after the Sol 1770 drive was about 1.1 kilometer (two-thirds of a mile) south southwest of Victoria Crater. Cumulative odometry was 13.72 kilometers (8.53 miles) since landing in January 2004, including 1.94 kilometers (1.21 miles) since climbing out of Victoria Crater on the west side of the crater on Sol 1634 (August 28, 2008). | |
This map shows NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit's past and future routes across the Gusev Crater floor. The solid red line shows where the rover has traveled so far, from lander to the rim of the large crater dubbed 'Bonneville.' | This map shows the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit's past and future routes across the Gusev Crater floor. The solid red line shows where the rover has traveled so far, from lander to the rim of the large crater dubbed "Bonneville." The dotted red line indicates proposed future paths to the Columbia Hills. Rover team members have not yet decided which direction Spirit will travel across Bonneville's ejecta (the blanket of material expelled from it during formation) and toward the hills, as illustrated by the two diverging dotted lines. Along the way, Spirit will stop to investigate interesting targets, including craters and plain deposits. The journey to the hills is estimated to about two months, or 60 sols. The underlying image in this map was taken by the camera on NASA's Mars Global Surveyor orbiter. | |
This image captured by NASA's 2001 Mars Odyssey spacecraft shows a portion of the huge dune field located at the north polar cap. As spring continues to deepen, the dunes are becoming darker and darker as they lose their winter frost cover. | Context imageThis VIS image shows a portion of the huge dune field located at the north polar cap. As spring continues to deepen, the dunes are becoming darker and darker as they lose their winter frost cover.Orbit Number: 53424 Latitude: 81.615 Longitude: 208.313 Instrument: VIS Captured: 2013-12-29 19:50Please see the THEMIS Data Citation Note for details on crediting THEMIS images.NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory manages the 2001 Mars Odyssey mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, 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. | |
The smooth surfaces of angular and rounded rocks seen in this image of the martian terrain may be the result of wind-polishing debris. The picture was taken by the panoramic camera onboard NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit. | The smooth surfaces of angular and rounded rocks seen in this image of the martian terrain may be the result of wind-polishing debris. The picture was taken by the panoramic camera on the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit. | |
This image from NASA's Mars Odyssey shows a portion of the flank of Olympus Mons on Mars. Lava flows are easily identifiable in this image. | This is a daytime IR image of the same location as yesterday's nighttime IR image (PIA07182). Lava flows are much easier to identify in this image. The warming of the surface by the sun has increased the signal emitted to the camera.Image information: IR instrument. Latitude 14, Longitude 229.8 East (130.2 West). 100 meter/pixel resolution.Note: this THEMIS visual image has not been radiometrically nor geometrically calibrated for this preliminary release. An empirical correction has been performed to remove instrumental effects. A linear shift has been applied in the cross-track and down-track direction to approximate spacecraft and planetary motion. Fully calibrated and geometrically projected images will be released through the Planetary Data System in accordance with Project policies at a later time.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. | |
Mars Exploration Rover (MER) spacecraft. This image shows the aeroshell, which includes the backshell as well as the heatshield. | December 5, 2002Mars Exploration Rover (MER) spacecraft. This image shows the aeroshell, which includes the backshell as well as the heatshield. | |
This image from NASA's Mars Global Surveyor acquired on April 28, 1998, shows some of the lava flows near the summit of Ascraeus Mons. | Ascraeus Mons Volcano: Like Earth, Mars has many volcanoes and volcanic features. This high-resolution view shows some of the lava flows near the summit of Ascraeus Mons, one of the three giant shield volcanoes known as the "Tharsis Montes." Volcanoes form when magma (molten rock) erupts out onto the surface of a planet. Based on Viking-era observations, Ascraeus Mons is considered to be one of the tallest volcanoes on Mars... its summit is more than 11 km (6.8 miles) above the surrounding plain. The summit is more than 23 km (14 miles) higher in elevation than the place where Mars Pathfinder landed in July 1997.Description of MOC Image: This picture shows an area that is about 20 km (12 miles) higher in elevation than the Mars Pathfinder landing site. The picture shows three main features: (1) a crater at the center-right, (2) a sinuous, discontinuous channel across the upper half, and (3) a rough and pitted, elevated surface across the lower half of the image.(1) Crater at center right. Distinguishing meteor craters from volcanic craters can sometimes be a challenge on Mars. This particular crater was most likely formed by meteor impact because it has a raised rim and a faint radial ejecta pattern around the outside of it. This crater is 600 m (2000 feet) across, about 3/4 the size of the famous "Meteor Crater" near Winslow, Arizona.(2) Sinuous channel. The type of discontinuous channel running across the upper half of the image is sometimes referred to as a "sinuous rille." These are common on the volcanic plains of the Moon and among volcanoes and volcanic plains on Earth. Such a channel was once a lava tube. It is running down the middle of an old lava flow. The "tube" looks like a "channel" because its roof has collapsed. The discontinuous nature of this channel is the result of the collapse, or "cave-in" of what was once the roof of the lava tube. It is common for certain types of relatively fluid lavas to form lava tubes. As it is being emplaced, the outer margins of the lava flow cool and harden, but the interior remains hot and continues to flow down-hill. Eventually, the eruption stops and the lava inside the tube cools, contracts, and hardens, leaving behind a tube (basically, a long narrow cave).(3) Rough elevated surface. The rough, pitted, and elevated surface across the bottom half of the image is a lava flow. The margins of this feature are somewhat lobate in form, and the entire feature is elevated above its surroundings, indicating that it was the last lava flow to pour through this region.Putting it All Together: Aa and Pahoehoe Lava Flows: Shield volcanoes such as Ascraeus Mons form from relatively fluid lavas. Shield volcanoes on Earth include the well-known Islands of Hawai'i. The kind of lava that is fluid enough to make shield volcanoes is called basalt. This is an iron- and magnesium-rich silicate lava that, when cooled, is usually black or very dark brown.Basalt lava flows come in two main varieties: Aa and Pahoehoe. These are Hawai'ian names. "Aa" (pronounced "ah-ah") lava flows have very rough, jumbly surfaces, and they usually lack lava tubes. "Aa" lava flow surfaces are very rough to walk on-- thus the term "aa" probably refers to the sound a person might make when walking on a cooled/solidified aa flow in bare feet!"Pahoehoe" (pronounced "pa-hoy-hoy") is a term that means "ropey." The surfaces of pahoehoe lava flows are generally very smooth and billowy. Sometimes they have a ropy texture like melted taffy or caramel. Pahoehoe flows very commonly contain lava tubes.The rough-surfaced flow across the lower half of the MOC image is interpreted to be an "aa" lava flow, and the smoother surface with a sinuous channel running down its center is interpreted to be a "pahoehoe" lava flow. Both would indicate that the lavas on Ascraeus Mons, at least at this location, are probably composed of basalt.More Picture Information: This MOC picture is a subframe of image #26705, centered approximately at 11.5°N latitude, 103.5°W longitude. It was taken on April 28, 1998, at 4:23 AM Universal Time, on Mars Global Surveyor's 267th orbit around Mars. Orbit 267 was the second-to-last orbit on which observations were obtained before Mars and the spacecraft passed behind the Sun for several weeks known as "Solar Conjunction."Malin Space Science Systems and the California Institute of Technology built the MOC using spare hardware from the Mars Observer mission. MSSS operates the camera from its facilities in San Diego, CA. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory's Mars Surveyor Operations Project operates the Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft with its industrial partner, Lockheed Martin Astronautics, from facilities in Pasadena, CA and Denver, CO. | |
NASA's Mars Global Surveyor shows Warrego Valles, a system of discontinuous valleys located in the martian southern hemisphere south of Valles Marineris between Aonia Terra and Icaria Planum. | After several weeks of hiatus owing to problems with Mars Global Surveyor's High Gain Antenna (e.g., see JPL Release (April 16, 1999) the Mars Orbiter Camera resumed operations during the final days of April 1999. Shown here is one of the first images returned after MOC began taking pictures again.Warrego Valles is a system of discontinuous valleys located in the martian southern hemisphere south of Valles Marineris between Aonia Terra and Icaria Planum. This picture shows one of the small valleys in this system. The planet's surface both inside and outside the valley appears to be extremely rough. A person would find this terrain challenging to walk around in. The picture is illuminated from the upper left and covers an area 3 kilometers (1.9 miles) across.Malin Space Science Systems and the California Institute of Technology built the MOC using spare hardware from the Mars Observer mission. MSSS operates the camera from its facilities in San Diego, CA. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory's Mars Surveyor Operations Project operates the Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft with its industrial partner, Lockheed Martin Astronautics, from facilities in Pasadena, CA and Denver, CO. | |
This image of Mars from NASA's Mars Global Surveyor Orbiter shows an area centered near the Pathfinder landing site. The dark area north of the center of the image along the sunrise terminator is Acidalia Planitia. | This image of Mars shows an area centered near the Pathfinder landing site. The dark area north of the center of the image along the sunrise terminator is Acidalia Planitia--the Pathfinder landing site is about a third of the way down from this dark area across the light Chryse plains. The bright area near the edge of the planet is Arabia. The lower 40% of the image contains the Xanthe, Margaritifer, and Meridiani highlands, heavily-cratered, ancient areas of the most intense erosion seen on Mars. These will be among the more important targets of the MOC when it begins detailed studies in March 1998.Malin Space Science Systems and the California Institute of Technology built the MOC using spare hardware from the Mars Observer mission. MSSS operates the camera from its facilities in San Diego, CA. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory operates the Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft with its industrial partner, Lockheed Martin Astronautics, from facilities in Pasadena, CA and Denver, CO. | |
This image from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shows Ganges Chasma in the northeast portion of Valles Marineris. Scattered hills on the canyon floor may be remnants of chaos terrain that formed from collapse of the canyon. | Map Projected Browse ImageClick on image for larger versionNASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) observed this image of Ganges Chasma in the northeast portion of Valles Marineris, and opens into outflow channels that flowed to the north.Scattered hills on the canyon floor may be remnants of chaos terrain that formed from collapse of the canyon. Some of the bedrock has diverse colors as we see in the enhanced-color (false color) cutout. The map is projected here at a scale of 50 centimeters (19.7 inches) per pixel. [The original image scale is 53.5 centimeters (21.1 inches) per pixel (with 2 x 2 binning); objects on the order of 160 centimeters (62.0 inches) across are resolved.] North is up.The University of Arizona, Tucson, operates HiRISE, which was built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., Boulder, Colorado. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of Caltech in Pasadena, California, manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. | |
NASA's Mars Exploration Rover used its panoramic camera to record this view of the rim of a crater about 65 kilometers (40 miles) in the distance, on the southwestern horizon. This crater, Bopolu, is about 19 kilometers (12 miles) in diameter. | NASA's Mars Exploration Rover used its panoramic camera to record this view of the rim of a crater about 65 kilometers (40 miles) in the distance, on the southwestern horizon. This crater, Bopolu, is about 19 kilometers (12 miles) in diameter. The image was taken during the 2,179th Martian day, or sol, of Opportunity's mission on Mars (March 11, 2010), two days after the rover drove southward away from Concepcion crater, site of several weeks of investigation.Opportunity's long-term destination is Endeavour Crater, to the southeast and closer than Bopolu. The intended route heads south before turning east in order to bypass potentially hazardous sand ripples to the east, larger than the ripples in the foreground of this image. This approximately true-color view combines three exposures taken through filters admitting wavelengths of 750 nanometers, 530 nanometers and 480 nanometers. | |
This image from NASA's Mars Global Surveyor shows a group of tapered ridges, known as yardangs, which formed by wind erosion of a relatively easily-eroded material, most likely sedimentary rock or volcanic ash deposits. | 12 January 2006This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) image shows a group of tapered ridges, known as yardangs, which formed by wind erosion of a relatively easily-eroded material, most likely sedimentary rock or volcanic ash deposits containing some fraction of sand-sized grains.Location near: 6.1°S, 210.8°W Image width: ~2 km (~1.2 mi) Illumination from: lower left Season: Southern Summer | |
NASA's Mars Global Surveyor shows the mapping of Mars' polar cap recession, surface and atmospheric temperatures, and albedo features found within the seasonal cap itself. | The early part of the Mars Global Surveyor mission provided good TES coverage of the Mars south polar region. These data allow mapping of the polar cap recession, surface and atmospheric temperatures, and albedo features found within the seasonal cap itself (Kieffer et al., 1998, Titus et al., 1998).During the period observed, the seasonal south polar cap retreated continuously and asymmetrically around the geographic pole, much the way Viking observed in 1976-1977 (Kieffer et al., 1977). One of the most dominant albedo features on the seasonal cap is a region that appears almost as dark as bare ground, but yet remains cold. We refer to this region, generally located between latitudes 85°S and 75°S and longitudes 150°W and 310°W, as the Cryptic region.A re-examination of the IRTM data revealed that the Cryptic region was not unique to the TES era, but also was quite apparent during the Viking era. Interesting enough, Antoniadi (Blunck, 1977) observed dark regions forming on the season cap that loosely correlates to the Cryptic region: Depressio Magna (1909) and Depressio Parva (1929). These depressios were located at 270° W, 78°S and 166° W, 76°S, respectively.Analysis of both the TES and IRTM data indicate that the Cryptic region is unique in its thermophysical properties relative to the rest of the cap. The region is a repeatable event that occupies the same general area from year to year. It is darker and slightly warmer than the rest of the south polar cap. Even though the Cryptic region is slightly warmer, it must still be CO2 buffered since it remains "cold" for several days.Spectral analysis of the TES longward of the 15 micron atmospheric band shows that the Cryptic region shows less spectral than the rest of the polar cap. This suggests that the region may be composed of "ice," as opposed to snow or frost (Hansen, 1998). Further spectral analysis on going.This image is a map of TES data, showing Lambert albedo of the south polar cap. The image is a composite from the first rolls of orbit 43 (Ls =219.2°, Nov 17, 1997) and orbit 45 (Ls=220.8°, Nov 20, 1997). The Cryptic region is the blue area curving along the 80°S latitude line. The region shows up in the thermal image (PIA02333) as only slightly warmer than the rest of the polar cap, but still too cold to be bare ground. | |
This map shows in red the route driven by NASA's Curiosity Mars rover from the 'Bradbury Landing' location where it landed in August 2012 to nearly the completion of its first Martian year. The white line shows the planned route ahead. | This map shows in red the route driven by NASA's Curiosity Mars rover from the "Bradbury Landing" location where it landed in August 2012 (blue star at upper right) to nearly the completion of its first Martian year. The white line shows the planned route ahead.Curiosity departed a waypoint called "The Kimberley" on the 630th Martian day, or sol, of the rover's work on Mars (May 15, 2014) and drove more than three-fourths of a mile (1.2 kilometers) between then and the Sol 663 (June 18, 2014) position marked on the map by the green star at the western end of the red line. The rover will have completed a mission goal of working for a full Martian year on Sol 669 (June 24, 2014). A Martian year is 687 Earth days.A major destination for the mission remains geological layering exposed on the lower slope of Mount Sharp, with "Murray Buttes" chosen as the entry point because of a gap there in a band of dark-toned dune fields edging the base of the mountain. The white line indicates a planned route to Murray Buttes chosen in spring 2014 as the safest path for the rover's wheels. Embedded, sharp rocks on the route driven between the "Cooperstown" and "Kimberley" waypoints marked on the map caused the pace of wear and tear on the wheels to accelerate unexpectedly in late 2013. The white-line route avoids some stretches of similar terrain on a more northerly route previously planned for getting to Murray Buttes.The base image for this map is from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. North is up. The scale bar at lower right represents one kilometer (0.62 mile). For broader-context images of the area, see PIA16064 and PIA16058. At Yellowknife Bay, the Mars Science Laboratory Project that built and operates Curiosity achieved its main science objective of determining whether Mars ever offered environmental conditions favorable for microbial life. Rock-powder samples drilled from two mudstone rocks there and analyzed onboard yielded evidence for an ancient lakebed with mild water, the chemical elements needed for life and a mineral source of energy used by some Earth microbes. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, manages the Mars Science Laboratory Project and Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington.More information about Curiosity is online at http://www.nasa.gov/msl and http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/. | |
This map shows regions in and around Mars' Jezero Crater, the landing site of NASA's Perseverance rover. The green circle represents the rover's landing ellipse, or the area where it will be landing within the crater. | This map shows regions in and around Jezero Crater on Mars, the landing site of NASA's Perseverance rover. The green circle represents the rover's landing ellipse.Jezero held a lake and river delta billions of years ago; scientists want to capture samples of rock in these regions that may contain evidence of ancient microscopic life, which will be returned to Earth by a future mission for extensive study. Each of these regions represents a distinct area that may hold different kinds of evidence. The outermost region, called Midway/Northeast Syrtis, could be considered for exploration after the rover's primary mission.The map was created in a tool called Campaign Analysis Mapping and Planning (CAMP), developed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of Caltech in Southern California, which manages the Mars 2020 Perseverance rover mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. Data for the map was provided by the High-Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE), one of the cameras aboard NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, also managed by JPL. The University of Arizona, in Tucson, operates HiRISE, which was built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., in Boulder, Colorado. | |
A microscopic image shows variability of grain size, medium-sized, well rounded and sorted, within a parallel-stratified portion of the 'Slickrock' area in the martian rock outcrop examined by NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity. | Figure 1A microscopic image shows variability of grain size within a parallel-stratified portion of the "Slickrock" area in the martian rock outcrop examined by NASA's Opportunity. Opportunity took this picture with its microscopic imager during the rover's 42nd sol on Mars (March 6, 2004), the sol before it took a similar picture PIA05520 at the same location. Most of the grains visible resemble medium-sized sand grains and are well-rounded and well-sorted.The dip from left to right is an artifact of the camera pointing angle. The grains in the rock define the fine layers, or laminae, and the variability in grain size along each lamina is small compared to the variability between laminae. Some of the fine layers have mostly smaller grains; others have mostly larger grains. Red arrows and labels (Figure 1) indicate the sizes of a representative large grain (0.8 millimeter or 0.03 inch) and a representative small grain (0.3 millimeters or 0.01 inch). | |
NASA's Mars Global Surveyor shows gullies and slopes in the walls of a deep pit in the south polar region of Mars. | 22 March 2004This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) image shows gullies and slopes in the walls of a deep pit in the south polar region. The full-resolution (1.5 m/pixel; 5 ft./pixel) image is located near 71.1°S, 358.8°W, and covers an area about 3 km (1.9 mi) across. Sunlight illuminates the scene from the lower left. | |
This image from NASA's Mars Odyssey shows the eastern side of Uranius Mons. Uranius Mons is 4.8 kilometers (3 miles) high with shallow slopes. | Context imageToday's VIS image shows the eastern side of Uranius Mons. Uranius Mons is 4.8 kilometers (3 miles) high with shallow slopes. The surrounding volcanic plains are younger than the volcano itself and originated at other volcanic centers in the Tharsis region.Orbit Number: 93779 Latitude: 26.0433 Longitude: 267.938 Instrument: VIS Captured: 2023-02-04 01:46Please see the THEMIS Data Citation Note for details on crediting THEMIS images.NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory manages the 2001 Mars Odyssey mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, 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. | |
This image, part of THEMIS art month, taken by NASA's Mars Odyssey features a portion of Mars' landscape looking like a face staring at the spacecraft. | Welcome to the second annual THEMIS ART MONTH. From Jan. 31 through March 4 we will be showcasing images for their aesthetic value, rather than their science content. Portions of these images resemble things in our everyday lives, from animals to letters of the alphabet. We hope you enjoy our fanciful look at Mars!Something is looking at you...but what is it?Note: this THEMIS visual image has not been radiometrically nor geometrically calibrated for this preliminary release. An empirical correction has been performed to remove instrumental effects. A linear shift has been applied in the cross-track and down-track direction to approximate spacecraft and planetary motion. Fully calibrated and geometrically projected images will be released through the Planetary Data System in accordance with Project policies at a later time.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. | |
Siton Undae is a large dune field located in the northern plains near Escorial Crater. This image from NASA's 2001 Mars Odyssey spacecraft shows part of a dune field just west of Escorial Crater (just off the top of image). | Context image Siton Undae is a large dune field located in the northern plains near Escorial Crater. Siton Undae is west of the crater and is one of three dune fields near the crater. The nearby north polar cap is dissected by Chasma Boreale, which exposes an ice free surface. This image shows part of dune field just west of Escorial Crater (just off the top of image).The Odyssey spacecraft has spent over 15 years in orbit around Mars, circling the planet more than 69000 times. It holds the record for longest working spacecraft at Mars. THEMIS, the IR/VIS camera system, has collected data for the entire mission and provides images covering all seasons and lighting conditions. Over the years many features of interest have received repeated imaging, building up a suite of images covering the entire feature. From the deepest chasma to the tallest volcano, individual dunes inside craters and dune fields that encircle the north pole, channels carved by water and lava, and a variety of other feature, THEMIS has imaged them all. For the next several months the image of the day will focus on the Tharsis volcanoes, the various chasmata of Valles Marineris, and the major dunes fields. We hope you enjoy these images!Orbit Number: 18999 Latitude: 75.5288 Longitude: 299.95 Instrument: VIS Captured: 2006-03-27 17:13Please see the THEMIS Data Citation Note for details on crediting THEMIS images.NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory manages the 2001 Mars Odyssey mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, 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. | |
NASA's 2001 Mars Odyssey infrared image shows a group of dunes in Aonia Terra. | Context imageCredit: NASA/JPL/MOLAContinuing our survey of non-crater dune fields brings us to this group of dunes in Aonia Terra. The daytime IR illustrates the warmth of the dune material compared to the surrounding materials.Image information: IR instrument. Latitude -50.1N, Longitude 293.4E. 121 meter/pixel resolution.Please see the THEMIS Data Citation Note for details on crediting THEMIS images.Note: this THEMIS visual image has not been radiometrically nor geometrically calibrated for this preliminary release. An empirical correction has been performed to remove instrumental effects. A linear shift has been applied in the cross-track and down-track direction to approximate spacecraft and planetary motion. Fully calibrated and geometrically projected images will be released through the Planetary Data System in accordance with Project policies at a later time.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. | |
This image from NASA's 2001 Mars Odyssey spacecraft shows a portion of Granicus Valles. This channel system is located west of Elysium Mons and likely was created by both lava and water flow related to the Elysium Mons volcanic complex. | Context imageToday's VIS image shows a portion of Granicus Valles. This channel system is located west of Elysium Mons and likely was created by both lava and water flow related to the Elysium Mons volcanic complex.Orbit Number: 61084 Latitude: 28.5697 Longitude: 129.782 Instrument: VIS Captured: 2015-09-21 10:03Please see the THEMIS Data Citation Note for details on crediting THEMIS images.NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory manages the 2001 Mars Odyssey mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, 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. | |
Made with data recorded by NASA's Perseverance during a July 15, 2023 autonomous drive, this animation shows how the rover used AutoNav to maneuver around the 14-inch (35-centimeter) rock at center-left. | Click here for animationThis animation is a playback of data recorded by NASA's Perseverance Mars rover during an autonomous drive on July 15, 2023, the 854th day, or sol, of the mission. During this drive, the rover identified and navigated around the 14-inch (35-centimeter) rock seen at center-left. The self-driving autonomous navigation system, AutoNav, allows the rover to autonomously re-plan its route around rocks or other obstacles on its way to a pre-established destination. Engineers driving the rover at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California use visualization software to plan how the rover moves around on Mars and to evaluate its performance. The lines seen emanating from the front of the rover are 20 feet (6 meters) long and indicate the paths the rover is evaluating for safety in real time, while driving. Lines that turn blue show where the rover identified a "wheel drop" hazard – where a wheel could drop more than 14 inches (35 centimeters). Magenta lines indicate where the rover saw a belly pan clearance issue – where a terrain feature could get too close to the belly pan underneath the rover. The surrounding white terrain is a digital elevation model that the rover creates onboard using navigation camera images. The animation has been sped up compared to real time. A key objective for Perseverance's mission on Mars is astrobiology, including the search for signs of ancient microbial life. The rover will characterize the planet's geology and past climate, pave the way for human exploration of the Red Planet, and be the first mission to collect and cache Martian rock and regolith (broken rock and dust).Subsequent NASA missions, in cooperation with ESA (European Space Agency), would send spacecraft to Mars to collect these sealed samples from the surface and return them to Earth for in-depth analysis.The Mars 2020 Perseverance mission is part of NASA's Moon to Mars exploration approach, which includes Artemis missions to the Moon that will help prepare for human exploration of the Red Planet.JPL, which is managed for NASA by Caltech in Pasadena, California, built and manages operations of the Perseverance rover. | |
NASA's Viking Orbiter 1 spies the north polar residual ice cap, which is cut by spiral-patterned troughs and surrounded by the dark lowland plains of Vastitas Borealis, Mars is located at the top. | Center of the orthographic projection is at latitude 30 degrees N., longitude 150 degrees. The north polar residual ice cap, which is cut by spiral-patterned troughs and surrounded by the dark lowland plains of Vastitas Borealis, is located at the top. The right-central part is dominated by the Tharsis Montes volcanoes. The most prominent of the Tharsis Montes volcanoes is the largest known volcano in the solar system, Olympus Mons. The light-colored lowland plains of Amazonis, Elysium, and Arcadia Planitiae lies north and west of Olympus Mons. The heavily cratered highlands dominate the lower one-third. | |
This image captured by NASA's 2001 Mars Odyssey spacecraft shows several channels in and around unnamed craters in Noachis Terra. | Context image This VIS image shows several channels in and around unnamed craters in Noachis Terra.Orbit Number: 66252 Latitude: -38.0339 Longitude: 40.923 Instrument: VIS Captured: 2016-11-20 01:43Please see the THEMIS Data Citation Note for details on crediting THEMIS images.NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory manages the 2001 Mars Odyssey mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, 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. | |
NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity to this polar projection 360-degree view of the its surroundings on Oct. 22, 2008 southwest of Victoria Crater on Mars. | NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity used its navigation camera to take the images combined into this 360-degree view of the rover's surroundings on the 1,687th Martian day, or sol, of its surface mission (Oct. 22, 2008). Opportunity had driven 133 meters (436 feet) that sol, crossing sand ripples up to about 10 centimeters (4 inches) tall. The tracks visible in the foreground are in the east-northeast direction.Opportunity's position on Sol 1687 was about 300 meters southwest of Victoria Crater. The rover was beginning a long trek toward a much larger crater, Endeavour, about 12 kilometers (7 miles) to the southeast.This view is presented as a polar projection with geometric seam correction. | |
Blue-filter image of the 1997 Martian dust storm. Mars Orbiter Camera wide-angle frame from Orbit 50, taken by NASA's Mars Global Surveyor Orbiter. | Blue-filter image of the 1997 Martian dust storm. Mars Orbiter Camera wide-angle frame from Orbit 50.Figure caption from Science Magazine. | |
The terrain in this image from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter lies in the Deuteronilus Mensae region along the highland-lowland dichotomy boundary in the northern hemisphere of Mars. | The terrain in this image lies in the Deuteronilus Mensae region along the highland-lowland dichotomy boundary in the northern hemisphere of Mars. The High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter recorded this image on March 9, 2010. The target for this HiRISE observation was a suggestion submitted through the camera team's HiWish public-suggestion program. For more information about how to submit target suggestions, see http://uahirise.org/hiwish/.This region contains many mesas surrounded by lobate debris aprons that are thought to be ice-rich. These aprons have been interpreted as a variety of possible features including rock glaciers, ice-rich mass movements, or debris-covered glacial flows. Recent radar data from the Shallow Radar instrument on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has shown them to be composed of nearly pure ice. This image shows an area at the edge of one of these mesas with a lobate debris apron extending from its base. Both the mesa top and the surface of the debris apron appear covered with ice-rich mantling materials characteristic of the Martian mid-latitudes and thought to have been deposited around 10 million years ago during a period of high obliquity. This image covers a swath of ground about 1 kilometer (about two-thirds of a mile) wide. It is a portion of HiRISE observation ESP_016959_2240, which is centered at 43.62 degrees north latitude, 28.62 degrees east longitude. The season on Mars is northern-hemisphere spring. Other image products from this observation are available at http://hirise.lpl.arizona.edu/ESP_016959_2240.Color images from HiRISE combine information from detectors with three different color filters: red, infrared, and blue-green. Thus they include information from part of the spectrum human eyes cannot see and are not true color as the eye would see. The resulting false color helps to show differences among surface materials. The University of Arizona, Tucson, operates the HiRISE camera, which was built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., Boulder, Colo. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter for the NASA Science Mission Directorate, Washington. Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver, built the spacecraft. | |
Ismenius Lacus region of Mars containing the impact crater Moreux. This scene shows heavily cratered highlands in the south on relatively smooth lowland plains in the north separated by a belt of dissected terrain, as seen by NASA's Viking spacecraft. | Color image of part of the Ismenius Lacus region of Mars (MC-5 quadrangle) containing the impact crater Moreux (right center); north toward top. The scene shows heavily cratered highlands in the south on relatively smooth lowland plains in the north separated by a belt of dissected terrain, containing flat-floored valleys, mesas, and buttes. This image is a composite of Viking medium-resolution images in black and white and low-resolution images in color. The image extends from latitude 36 degrees N. to 50 degrees N. and from longitude 310 degrees to 340 degrees; Lambert conformal conic projection. The dissected terrain along the highlands/lowlands boundary consists of the flat-floored valleys of Deuteronilus Mensae (on left) and Prontonilus Mensae (on right) and farther north the small, rounded hills of knobby terrain. Flows on the mensae floors contain striae that run parallel to valley walls; where valleys meet, the striae merge, similar to medial moraines on glaciers. Terraces within the valley hills have been interpreted as either layered rocks or wave terraces. The knobby terrain has been interpreted as remnants of the old, densely cratered highland terrain perhaps eroded by mass wasting. | |
This image from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shows a crater is located in Elysium Planitia, Mars, an area dominated by volcanic processes. It is likely that the crater fill material is volcanic in origin. | Map Projected Browse ImageClick on the image for larger versionThis 2.5-kilometer diameter crater observed by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) has been significantly altered from the usual bowl-shaped appearance we associate with craters. Material has covered significant portions of the ejecta and filled in the crater. This fill material has since been subject to erosion -- like boulders weathering out of the slopes -- and the crater rim is also highly irregular.This crater is located in Elysium Planitia, an area dominated by volcanic processes. It is likely that the crater fill material is volcanic in origin, and possible that the rim was etched by lava, either flowing into the crater or spilling over after the crater filled completely. However, there are also signs of erosion by wind, like the parallel ridges in the rim breaches and between high-standing regions of the crater fill. It is likely that the current appearance of this crater is due to a combination of surface processes.This is a stereo pair with ESP_045319_1830.
The map is projected here at a scale of 50 centimeters (19.7 inches) per pixel. [The original image scale is 61.7 centimeters (21 inches) per pixel (with 2 x 2 binning); objects on the order of 185 centimeters (59.8 inches) across are resolved.] North is up.
The University of Arizona, Tucson, operates HiRISE, which was built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., Boulder, Colo. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of Caltech in Pasadena, California, manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. | |
This image from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter covers layered sedimentary rocks on the floor of an impact crater north of Eberswalde Crater. There may have been a lake in this crater billions of years ago. | Map Projected Browse ImageClick on the image for larger versionThis image covers layered sedimentary rocks on the floor of an impact crater north of Eberswalde Crater. There may have been a lake in this crater billions of years ago, and the area was once considered a landing spot for the Mars Science Laboratory.There are diverse rock compositions, as we can see in an enhanced-color cutout. This image completes a stereo pair, so be sure to view the stereo anaglyph.The University of Arizona, Tucson, operates HiRISE, which was built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., Boulder, Colorado. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Project and Mars Science Laboratory Project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. | |
This image shows NASA's Sojourner rover's Alpha Proton X-ray Spectrometer (APXS) deployed against the rock 'Stimpy' on the afternoon of Sol 68 (September 11, 1997). | This image shows the Sojourner rover's Alpha Proton X-ray Spectrometer (APXS) deployed against the rock "Stimpy" on the afternoon of Sol 68 (September 11). The two rocks behind the rover were previously analyzed by the APXS.This image and PIA01563 (right eye) make up a stereo pair.Mars Pathfinder is the second in NASA's Discovery program of low-cost spacecraft with highly focused science goals. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA, developed and manages the Mars Pathfinder mission for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). The Imager for Mars Pathfinder (IMP) was developed by the University of Arizona Lunar and Planetary Laboratory under contract to JPL. Peter Smith is the Principal Investigator.
Photojournal note: Sojourner spent 83 days of a planned seven-day mission exploring the Martian terrain, acquiring images, and taking chemical, atmospheric and other measurements. The final data transmission received from Pathfinder was at 10:23 UTC on September 27, 1997. Although mission managers tried to restore full communications during the following five months, the successful mission was terminated on March 10, 1998. | |
NASA's Mars Global Surveyor shows | 7 May 2004The dark streaks, just left of center, on the steep slope in this Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) image were formed by a relatively recent rock slide. The streak closest to the center of the image resolves into a series of small depressions, indicating the path of a large, rolling boulder. The rock slide is inferred to have been recent (i.e., within the past several Mars years) because it is so much darker than its surroundings--there has not been sufficient time for the streak surfaces to become mantled by dust. The other talus accumulations on this slope are most likely lighter in tone because they are older and coated with dust. These features are located in Ophir Chasma, part of the Valles Marineris trough system, near 4.2°S, 74.0°W. The picture is illuminated by sunlight from the lower left and covers an area about 3 km (1.9 mi) across. | |
This image from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter covers the entrance to Mawrth Vallis. | Map Projected Browse ImageClick on the image for larger versionIn Andy Weir's "The Martian," stranded astronaut Mark Watney drives from the Ares 3 landing site in Acidalia Planitia towards the Ares 4 landing site in Schiaparelli Crater via Mawrth Vallis. This image covers the entrance to Mawrth Vallis. (Have a look at the scene in 3D.)As you can tell, driving over this terrain will be much more difficult than it was depicted in the novel or the movie. The map is projected here at a scale of 50 centimeters (19.7 inches) per pixel. [The original image scale is 58.5 centimeters (19.1 inches) per pixel (with 2 x 2 binning); objects on the order of 176 centimeters (69.2 inches) across are resolved.] North is up.This is a stereo pair with ESP_048595_2060.The University of Arizona, Tucson, operates HiRISE, which was built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., Boulder, Colo. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of Caltech in Pasadena, California, manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. | |
This image taken in 1997 by NASA's Mars Global Surveyor shows the orientation and magnitude of the magnetic field measured by the MGS magnetometer as it sped over the surface of Mars during an early aerobraking pass. | This is MOC frame P005_03, a subset of PIA00941. MOC image P005_03 was acquired at 6:25 AM PDT on September 19, 1997, about 11 minutes after Mars Global Surveyor passed close to the planet for the fifth time. During the imaging period, the spacecraft was canted towards the sunlit hemisphere by 25°, and the MOC was obliquely viewing features about 1600 km (1000 miles) away. The resolution at that distance was about 6 meters (20 feet) per picture element (pixels), but in order to improve the number of gray levels, the pixels were summed in both the cross-track and along-track directions, yielding final resolution of about 12 meters (40 feet) per pixel. The MOC image covers an area about 12 km X 12 km (7.5 X 7.5 miles).Labyrinthus Noctis near the crest of a large (many thousands of kilometers) upcoming of the Martian crust, and the 2000 meter (6500 foot) deep canyons visible in these pictures are bounded by faults. Debris shed from the steep slopes has moved down into after the canyons opened. Small dunes are seen in the lowest area, beneath the high cliffs.Launched on November 7, 1996, Mars Global Surveyor entered Mars orbit on Thursday, September 11, 1997. The spacecraft has been using atmospheric drag to reduce the size of its orbit for the past three weeks, and will achieve a circular orbit only 400 km (248 mi) above the surface early next year. Mapping operations begin in March 1998. At that time, MOC narrow angle images will be 5-10 times higher resolution than these pictures.Malin Space Science Systems and the California Institute of Technology built the MOC using spare hardware from the Mars Observer mission. MSSS operates the camera from its facilities in San Diego, CA. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory's Mars Surveyor Operations Project operates the Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft with its industrial partner, Lockheed Martin Astronautics, from facilities in Pasadena, CA and Denver, CO. | |
This image from the Surface Stereo Imager on NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander taken on Sept. 18, 2008, shows morning frost inside the 'Snow White' trench dug by the lander, in addition to subsurface ice exposed by use of a rasp on the floor of the trench. | This image from the Surface Stereo Imager on NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander shows morning frost inside the "Snow White" trench dug by the lander, in addition to subsurface ice exposed by use of a rasp on the floor of the trench.The camera took this image at about 9 a.m. local solar time during the 113th Martian day of the mission (Sept. 18, 2008). Bright material near and below the four-by-four set of rasp holes in the upper half of the image is water-ice exposed by rasping and scraping in the trench earlier the same morning. Other bright material especially around the edges of the trench, is frost. Earlier in the mission, when the sun stayed above the horizon all night, morning frost was not evident in the trench.This image is presented in approximately true color.The trench is 4 to 5 centimeters (about 2 inches) deep, about 23 centimeters (9 inches) wide.Phoenix landed on a Martian arctic plain on May 25, 2008. The mission is led by the University of Arizona, Tucson, on behalf of NASA. Project management of the mission is led by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. Spacecraft development was by Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver.Photojournal Note: As planned, the Phoenix lander, which landed May 25, 2008 23:53 UTC, ended communications in November 2008, about six months after landing, when its solar panels ceased operating in the dark Martian winter. | |
This image of Kaiser Crater captured by NASA's 2001 Mars Odyssey spacecraft shows a region of the dunes with varied appearances. | Context image This VIS image of Kaiser Crater shows a region of the dunes with varied appearances. The different dune forms developed due to different amounts of available sand, different wind directions, and the texture of the crater floor. Dune size, shape, and spacing is controlled by a variety of factors. Note the dune that fills half of the crater in the center of the image.Kaiser Crater is located in the southern hemisphere in the Noachis region west of Hellas Planitia. Kaiser Crater is just one of several large craters with extensive dune fields on the crater floor. Other nearby dune filled craters are Proctor, Russell, and Rabe. Kaiser Crater is 207 km (129 miles) in diameter. The dunes are located in the southern part of the crater floor.The Odyssey spacecraft has spent over 15 years in orbit around Mars, circling the planet more than 71000 times. It holds the record for longest working spacecraft at Mars. THEMIS, the IR/VIS camera system, has collected data for the entire mission and provides images covering all seasons and lighting conditions. Over the years many features of interest have received repeated imaging, building up a suite of images covering the entire feature. From the deepest chasma to the tallest volcano, individual dunes inside craters and dune fields that encircle the north pole, channels carved by water and lava, and a variety of other feature, THEMIS has imaged them all. For the next several months the image of the day will focus on the Tharsis volcanoes, the various chasmata of Valles Marineris, and the major dunes fields. We hope you enjoy these images!Orbit Number: 14953 Latitude: -46.7919 Longitude: 18.4314 Instrument: VIS Captured: 2005-04-28 12:59Please see the THEMIS Data Citation Note for details on crediting THEMIS images.NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory manages the 2001 Mars Odyssey mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, 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. | |
Numerous gullies are visible on the central peak in Martz Crater, as shown in this image captured by NASA's 2001 Mars Odyssey spacecraft. | Context imageNumerous gullies are visible on the central peak in Martz Crater.Orbit Number: 58251 Latitude: -35.0012 Longitude: 144.266 Instrument: VIS Captured: 2015-01-31 02:55Please see the THEMIS Data Citation Note for details on crediting THEMIS images.NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory manages the 2001 Mars Odyssey mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, 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. |
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