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This image from NASA's Mars Odyssey spacecraft shows dark sand dunes and nearby dust devil tracks located on the floor of Green Crater. | Context image for PIA09441DunesThese dark sand dunes and nearby dust devil tracks are located on the floor of Green Crater.Image information: VIS instrument. Latitude -52.9N, Longitude 351.2E. 17 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 part of a large unnamed channel located in northern Arabia Terra. | Context imageToday's VIS image shows part of a large unnamed channel located in northern Arabia Terra. Channels in this region of Arabia Terra typically flow northward into the lower elevations of Acidalia Planitia, however this channel flows east/west over the majority of its length.Orbit Number: 94224 Latitude: 36.8608 Longitude: 28.5773 Instrument: VIS Captured: 2023-03-12 17:12Please 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 frosty, springtime scene in the north polar region of Mars. The area is blanketed by a maze of sand dunes; their appearance is enhanced by subliming, seasonal carbon dioxide frost. | 6 March 2006This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) image shows a frosty, springtime scene in the north polar region of Mars. The area is blanketed by a maze of sand dunes; their appearance is enhanced by subliming, seasonal carbon dioxide frost.Location near: 80.2°N, 168.8°W Image width: ~3 km (~1.9 mi) Illumination from: lower left Season: Northern Winter | |
The THEMIS camera contains 5 filters. Data from different filters can be combined in many ways to create a false color image. This image from NASA's 2001 Mars Odyssey spacecraft shows part of Russell Crater in Noachis Terra. | Context image The 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 Russell Crater in Noachis Terra.Orbit Number: 59591 Latitude: -54.471 Longitude: 13.1288 Instrument: VIS Captured: 2015-05-21 10:57Please 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 Opportunity Mars rover passed near this small, relatively fresh crater in April 2017, during the 45th anniversary of the Apollo 16 mission to the moon. The rover team chose to call it 'Orion Crater,' after the Apollo 16 lunar module. | NASA's Opportunity Mars rover passed near this small, relatively fresh crater in April 2017, during the 45th anniversary of the Apollo 16 mission to the moon. The rover team chose to call it "Orion Crater," after the Apollo 16 lunar module. The rover's Panoramic Camera (Pancam) recorded this view.The crater's diameter is about 90 feet (27 meters). From the small amount of erosion or filling that Orion Crater has experienced, its age is estimated at no more than 10 million years. It lies on the western rim of Endeavour Crater. For comparison, Endeavor is about 14 miles (22 kilometers) in diameter and more than 3.6 billion years old. This view combines multiple images taken through three different Pancam filters. The selected filters admit light centered on wavelengths of 753 nanometers (near-infrared), 535 nanometers (green) and 432 nanometers (violet). The three color bands are combined here to show approximately true color. The component images were taken on April 26, 2017, during the 4,712th Martian day, or sol, of Opportunity's work on Mars. The rover's location on that sol, during its approach toward "Perseverance Valley" on the Endeavour rim, is indicated on a map at https://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/mer/mission/tm-opportunity/images/MERB_Sol4711_1.jpg as the endpoint of the Sol 4711 drive. Apollo 16 astronauts John Young and Charles Duke flew in the Orion lunar module to and from the first human landing in the lunar highlands while Ken Mattingly orbited the moon in the command module, Casper. On the moon, Young and Duke investigated Plum Crater, which is approximately the same size as Mars' Orion Crater.For more information about Opportunity's adventures on Mars, visit https://mars.nasa.gov/mer. | |
This image from NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity provides a look back to the crest of Endeavour Crater's rim after the rover began descending 'Perseverance Valley' on the rim's inner slope. | This image from the navigation camera (Navcam) on the mast of NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity provides a look back to the crest of Endeavour Crater's rim after the rover began descending "Perseverance Valley" on the rim's inner slope.The Navcam took this image on July 18, 2017, during the 4,793rd Martian day, or sol, of Opportunity's work on Mars. Wheel tracks from the top of the rim to the rover are visible above the rear solar panel of the vehicle. For scale, the distance between tracks from right-side wheels and tracks from left-side wheels is about 3.3 feet (1 meter). The knob-topped cylinder mounted at the edge of the solar panel is the calibration target for Opportunity's panoramic camera (Pancam).Opportunity's location on Sol 4793 was a site within the upper end of Perseverance Valley that the rover reached with a drive of about 45 feet (13.8 meters) on July 7 (Sol 4782). The rover team chose this location for Opportunity to spend about three weeks during a driving moratorium for the Mars solar conjunction period. Mars solar conjunction occurs once about every 26 months when Mars passes nearly behind the sun, from Earth's perspective. The relative positions of the three bodies makes radio transmission of commands from Earth to Mars unreliable. One advantage of this chosen location for Opportunity is a slight northward tilt for the solar panels, which adds to their power output during these weeks of southern-hemisphere autumn when daily sunshine is diminishing. | |
NASA's Mars Global Surveyor shows Mars' polar cap with two types of layers, a stack of light-toned, nearly uniformly-bedded layers at the top, and a stack of darker-toned beds that form shelves and benches at the bottom. | The north polar cap of Mars is the only place on the surface of the planet that is known to have water. Of course, the water there is frozen. Unfortunately, the martian north polar cap has been a difficult place for the Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) to view. Each winter, the pole spends approximately 6 months in darkness. Each spring, everything is covered with frost. In summer and through autumn, the cap is often obscured by clouds--sometimes clouds of dust from raging dust storms, and sometimes clouds of water ice crystals. However, a period of excellent viewing conditions occurred early in the MGS Extended Mission (from February through April 2001). This image, taken by MOC in April 2001, shows the layers comprising the north polar cap exposed in an arcuate scarp that occurs at one end of Chasma Boreale. MOC images acquired in 1999 showed that the polar cap has two types of layers: there is a stack of light-toned, nearly uniformly-bedded layers at the top, and a stack of darker-toned beds that form shelves and benches at the bottom. The darker, lower beds are older. Dozens of MOC images were targeted during the clear-atmosphere period in 2001 to test the MOC team's hypotheses about the polar cap layers and these images have helped in documenting the nature of these layers. The lower, dark layers of the polar cap appear to include considerable amounts of sand, while the upper layers lack sand and instead may be a mixture of ice and dust. The lower layers appear to contributes and to the dune fields that surround the polar cap, though no dunes are present in the image shown here. This image is illuminated from the lower right and covers an area 14.5 km (9 mi.) across. The scarp slopes toward the bottom of the scene.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. | |
Just a small part of the huge Kasei Valles outflow channel on Mars is shown in this image captured by NASA's Mars Odyssey. Still, the awesome erosive power of the water that once flowed through this channel is evident. | Released 21 May 2003Just a small part of the huge Kasei Valles outflow channel is shown in this THEMIS visible image. Still, the awesome erosive power of the water that once flowed through this channel is evident. The different erosional levels of the channel indicate that it is likely that water flowed at several levels for some time. Today the area is covered by a layer of fine martian dust. The dark streaks seen on the cliff faces are the result of dust avalanches which have exposed the underlying rock.Image information: VIS instrument. Latitude 24.9, Longitude 287.4 East (72.6) 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. | |
Located north of Olympus Mons and west of Alba Patera, Acheron Fossae, seen in this NASA Mars Odyssey image, provides a record of early tectonic activity in the Tharsis region. | Located north of Olympus Mons and west of Alba Patera, Acheron Fossae provides a record of early tectonic activity in the Tharsis region. Acheron Fossae is a relatively high standing region characterized by multiple subparallel graben. As seen in the image, the graben trend generally to the northwest. The entire area predates the Alba Patera flows (which embay the eastern most Acheron grabens) and the Olympus Mons volcano (one of the youngest Tharsis features). The subdued nature of the highstanding hills, the erosion the graben walls, the eroded rims of all the visible craters, and the wind etching of the flat surfaces all help indicate the great age of Acheron Fossae.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 dark, windblown dunes on the floor of Bamburg Crater, located in the Cydonia region of Mars. | 1 September 2004This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) image shows dark, windblown dunes on the floor of Bamburg Crater, located in the Cydonia region near 39.7°N, 3.2°W. The winds responsible for these dunes flow generally from north to south. The image covers an area about 3 km (1.9 mi) across; sunlight illuminates the scene from the lower left. | |
Two channels are visible in this image from NASA's 2001 Mars Odyssey spacecraft . The smaller one near the bottom did not carve as deeply as the larger channel at the top. The channel near the top of the image is near the origin of Mamers Valles. | Context imageTwo channels are visible in today's image. The smaller one near the bottom of the image did not carve as deeply as the larger channel at the top of the image. The channel near the top of the image is near the origin of Mamers Valles.Orbit Number: 54129 Latitude: 30.7146 Longitude: 19.1717 Instrument: VIS Captured: 2014-02-25 20:00Please 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 from NASA's Mars Odyssey shows some of the dunes of the floor of Moreux Crater. | Context imageToday's VIS image shows some of the dunes of the floor of Moreux Crater.Orbit Number: 38511 Latitude: 41.3108 Longitude: 44.5915 Instrument: VIS Captured: 2010-08-20 08:04Please 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 spectrogram shows the largest quake ever detected on another planet. Estimated at magnitude 5, this quake was discovered by NASA's InSight lander on May 4, 2022. | This spectrogram shows the largest quake ever detected on another planet. Estimated at magnitude 5, this quake was discovered by NASA's InSight lander on May 4, 2022, the 1,222nd Martian day, or sol, of the mission.InSight was sent to Mars with a highly sensitive seismometer, provided by France's Centre National d'Études Spatiales (CNES), to study the deep interior of the planet. As seismic waves pass through or reflect off material in Mars' crust, mantle, and core, they change in ways that seismologists can study to determine the depth and composition of these layers. What scientists learn about the structure of Mars can help them better understand the formation of all rocky worlds, including Earth and its Moon.NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California manages InSight for NASA's Science Mission Directorate. InSight is part of NASA's Discovery Program, managed by the agency's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. Lockheed Martin Space in Denver built the InSight spacecraft, including its cruise stage and lander, and supports spacecraft operations for the mission.A number of European partners, including France's Centre National d'Études Spatiales (CNES) and the German Aerospace Center (DLR), are supporting the InSight mission. CNES provided the Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure (SEIS) instrument to NASA, with the principal investigator at IPGP (Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris). Significant contributions for SEIS came from IPGP; the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research (MPS) in Germany; the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH Zurich) in Switzerland; Imperial College London and Oxford University in the United Kingdom; and JPL. DLR provided the Heat Flow and Physical Properties Package (HP3) instrument, with significant contributions from the Space Research Center (CBK) of the Polish Academy of Sciences and Astronika in Poland. Spain's Centro de Astrobiología (CAB) supplied the temperature and wind sensors.For more information about the mission, go to https://mars.nasa.gov/insight. | |
NASA's Mars Global Surveyor shows of layered sedimentary rock outcrops in northern Sinus Meridiani on Mars featuring several buttes and ridges formed in rock that is somewhat resistant to erosion. | MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-347, 1 May 2003This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) image of layered sedimentary rock outcrops in northern Sinus Meridiani shows several buttes and ridges formed in rock that is somewhat resistant to erosion. The circular feature near the bottom of the picture is an old impact crater that was filled, then buried within the layered material, then later partially exhumed. The sinuous ridge and small buttes to the right of the exhumed crater are composed of the same rock materials that once buried the crater. The picture covers an area about 3 km (1.9 mi) wide near 2.3°N, 353.6°W. Sunlight illuminates the scene from the left. | |
NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander shows its robotic arm scoop containing a soil sample poised over the partially open door of the Thermal and Evolved-Gas Analyzer's number four cell, or oven on June 5, 2008. | This image was taken by NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander's Surface Stereo Imager on Sol 11 (June 5, 2008), the eleventh day after landing. It shows the Robotic Arm scoop containing a soil sample poised over the partially open door of the Thermal and Evolved-Gas Analyzer's number four cell, or oven.Light-colored clods of material visible toward the scoop's lower edge may be part of the crusted surface material seen previously near the foot of the lander. The material inside the scoop has been slightly brightened in this image.The Phoenix Mission is led by the University of Arizona, Tucson, on behalf of NASA. Project management of the mission is by NASA'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 yellow line on this map shows where NASA's Mars Rover Opportunity has driven from the place where it landed in January 2004, inside Eagle crater, upper left end of track, to a point about 2.2 miles away from reaching the rim of Endeavour crater. | Annotated ImageClick on the image for larger versionThe yellow line on this map shows where NASA's Mars Rover Opportunity has driven from the place where it landed in January 2004 -- inside Eagle crater, at the upper left end of the track -- to a point about 2.2 miles (3.5 kilometers) away from reaching the rim of Endeavour crater. Endeavour crater has been the rover team's destination for Opportunity since the rover finished exploring Victoria crater in August 2008. Endeavour, with a diameter of about 14 miles (22 kilometers), offers access to older geological deposits than any Opportunity has seen before. In honor of Opportunity's rover twin, the team has chosen "Spirit Point" as the informal name for the site on Endeavour's rim targeted for Opportunity's arrival at Endeavour. Spirit, which worked halfway around Mars from Opportunity for more than six years, ended communication in March 2010.Opportunity reached the point in its traverse indicated on this map on the 2,609th Martian day, or sol, of the rover's work on Mars (May 27, 2011). By that sol, Opportunity had driven a total of 18.58 miles (29.9 kilometers). By Sol 2619 (June 6, 2011) it had driven an additional 0.19 mile (0.32 kilometer).The western rim of Endeavour has a series of ridges. Spirit Point is the southern edge of a ridge called "Cape York." Farther south on the rim, a ridge called "Cape Tribulation" offers exposures identified from orbit as clay minerals.The base map is a mosaic of images from the Context Camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. It is used by rover team member Larry Crumpler of the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science, Albuquerque, for showing the regional context of Opportunity's traverse.Opportunity and Spirit completed their three-month prime missions in April 2004 and continued operations in bonus extended missions. The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter reached Mars in 2006, completed its prime mission in 2010, and is also working in an extended mission. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Mars Exploration Rover Project and the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter for the NASA Science Mission Directorate, Washington. Malin Space Science Systems, San Diego, built and operates the orbiter's Context Camera. | |
This image from NASA's Mars Odyssey spacecraft shows the western rim of Gale Crater. Several channels dissect the rim of the crater. | Context imageDuring the month of April Mars will be in conjunction relative to the Earth. This means the Sun is in the line-of-sight between Earth and Mars, and communication between the two planets is almost impossible. For conjunction, the rovers and orbiting spacecraft at Mars continue to operate, but do not send the data to Earth. This recorded data will be sent to Earth when Mars moves away from the sun and the line-of-sight between Earth and Mars is reestablished. During conjunction the THEMIS image of the day will be a visual tour of Gale Crater, the location of the newest rover Curiosity. Today's image shows the western rim of Gale Crater. Several channels dissect the rim of the crater.Orbit Number: 36487 Latitude: -5.08574 Longitude: 136.679 Instrument: VIS Captured: 2010-03-06 14:39Please 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 captured by NASA's 2001 Mars Odyssey spacecraft shows part of eastern Candor Chasma. In the middle of the image is a set of linear ridges and valleys. | Context image This image shows part of eastern Candor Chasma. In the middle of the image is a set of linear ridges and valleys. These features are called yardangs and are created by uniform winds that winnow away materials. Once the valleys are formed the wind then is funneled through the valley and erosion continues more in the valley than on the ridges. At the bottom of the valleys there are sand materials covering the slope between the valleys and the surrounding chasma floor. Beyond this coating of sand there are darker sand deposits where wind has accumulated the sand into larger dunes. The brighter mesa on the right side of the image has also been wind eroded into yardangs, but are aligned in a different direction than the larger yardangs. This indicates that wind directions within the canyon have changed over time.Candor Chasma is one of the largest canyons that make up Valles Marineris. It is approximately 810 km long (503 miles) and has is divided into two regions - eastern and western Candor. Candor is located south of Ophir Chasma and north of Melas Chasma. The border with Melas Chasma contains many large landslide deposits. 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 Chandor Chasma. There is evidence of wind and water erosion, as well as significant gravity driven mass wasting (landslides). 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: 10551 Latitude: -6.93639 Longitude: 288.562 Instrument: VIS Captured: 2004-05-01 02:24Please 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 the retreating edge of the seasonal north polar cap in the martian northern hemisphere. | 15 June 2004Spring is upon the martian northern hemisphere, and the north polar cap is shrinking. This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) image, acquired on 12 June 2004, shows the retreating edge of the seasonal north polar cap near 70°N, 209°W. Low clouds and fogs stream away from the cap edge as it sublimes away. North is approximately up and the image covers an area roughly 500 km (311 mi) across. Sunlight illuminates the scene from the lower left. The crater containing a thick mound of material near the right-center of the image is Korolev. | |
This image from NASA's Mars Odyssey shows dunes on the floor of an unnamed crater west of Herschel Crater. | Context imageThis VIS image shows dunes on the floor of an unnamed crater west of Herschel Crater.Orbit Number: 39632 Latitude: -13.6012 Longitude: 124.973 Instrument: VIS Captured: 2010-11-20 13:43Please 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 Odyssey spacecraft captured this image in July 2003, showing fine-scale layered deposits in both N/S polar regions. At the south pole, alternating light and dark bands represent varying amounts of dust or sand mixed in with carbon dioxide ice. | Released 17 July 2003Similar to ice cores taken from Greenland and Antarctica, Mars also has fine-scale layered deposits in both the north and south polar regions. In this image from the south pole, alternating light and dark bands represent varying amounts of dust or sand mixed in with carbon dioxide ice. These layers are related in part to climate cycles caused by variations in the tilt of Mars' rotational axis, as well as other orbital variations that occur on geologic time scales (tens of thousands of years).Image information: VIS instrument. Latitude -80.1, Longitude 260.4 East (99.6 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. | |
This image from NASA's Mars Odyssey show regions of densely coalesced dunes, common around the North Polar cap of Mars. | Context imageRegions of densely coalesced dunes are common around the North Polar cap of Mars.Orbit Number: 37730 Latitude: 80.1468 Longitude: 274.555 Instrument: VIS Captured: 2010-06-17 00:27Please 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. | |
Wheel Tracks from Landing Site to Hills | Figure 1Figure 2Wheel tracks left by the NASA rover Spirit's 3-kilometer (2-mile) trek from its landing site to the "Columbia Hills" are visible in this orbital view from the Mars Orbiter Camera on NASA's Mars Global Surveyor. Spirit's rover track shows up nicely from orbit because the surfaces disrupted and churned by the wheels are darker than the surrounding, dust-coated plain. North is up. The largest crater in the view, dubbed "Bonneville Crater," is about 210 meters (230 yards) in diameter. The picture is a composite of Mars Orbiter Camera image R15-02643, taken on March 30, 2004, when Spirit was near the south rim of Bonneville Crater, and image R20-01024, taken Aug. 18, 2004, when Spirit was climbing the hills' western spur, seen in the picture's bottom right corner. New Dark Streak Near SpiritIn figure 1, frames taken from orbit 20 weeks apart (top pair) and by the NASA rover Spirit at ground level (bottom) show the formation of a new dark streak on the ground in the area where Spirit was driving inside Mars' Gusev Crater in April 2004. The new dark streak and other dark streaks in the area are believed to result from dust devils removing brighter dust from the surface.The upper frames were taken by the Mars Orbiter Camera aboard NASA's Mars Global Surveyor. They are from the same pair of images combined to create the orbital view of the NASA rover Spirit's trail from the rover's landing site to the "Columbia Hills." The orbiter took the upper-left picture on March 30, 2004 (Spirit's 85th martian day, or sol). It took the upper-right picture on Aug. 18, 2004 (Spirit's sol 223). A dark streak occurs in the larger crater in the lower right quarter of the August image. This streak was not present when the March image was obtained. Inspection of the lower image, which was taken by Spirit's navigation camera when the rover was at the rim of this crater on sol 106 (April 20, 2004), reveals that the streak was present by then. Thus, the dust devil must have occurred some time between March 30 and April 20. The dust devil was not observed by the rover.In addition to the formation of this dark streak, another change seems to have occurred at the landing site. The rover track between the lander and Bonneville Crater seems to have faded between March 30 and Aug. 18. This could be an artifact of the different sunlight illumination conditions between the two images, or it may indicate that fine dust settled on the older portions of the track, obscuring it. The Mars Orbiter Camera team plans to re-visit the Spirit lander site from time to time to see what other changes may occur.Orbital View of Spirit's NeighborhoodThe three-frame set in figure 2 is a segmented version of the orbital view of the NASA rover Spirit's trail from the rover's landing site to the "Columbia Hills." The images were taken by the Mars Orbiter Camera on NASA's Mars Global Surveyor. North is up. The location of Spirit's lander, parachute, and backshell are indicated in frame A, and the rover track down toward the Columbia Hills can be traced through A, B, and C. In frame A, "Bonneville Crater" is the largest crater. Spirit drove up to Bonneville's rim and looked inside before driving away toward the southeast. The base of the Columbia Hills is seen in the lower right quarter of frame C. In frame B, notice that the rover track followed along the edge of a lighter-toned streak and wider dark streak, believed to have been formed by a dust devil before Spirit landed. The proximity of the rover to this streak was not recognized in rover images. | |
This image from NASA's Sojourner rover's right front camera was taken on Sol 27. The Pathfinder lander is seen at middle left. The large rock at right, nicknamed 'Squash,' exhibits a diversity of textures. Sol 1 began on July 4, 1997. | This image from the Sojourner rover's right front camera was taken on Sol 27. The Pathfinder lander is seen at middle left. The large rock at right, nicknamed "Squash," exhibits a diversity of textures. It looks very similar to a conglomerate, a type of rock found on Earth that forms from sedimentary processes.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 managed 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).
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. | |
A pedestal crater is when the ejecta from an impact settles around the new crater and is more erosion-resistant than the surrounding terrain as seen in this image from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. | Map Projected Browse ImageClick on the image for larger versionIn this image, we see an approximately 500-meter crater that is fairly fresh (in geological terms), but the ejecta is already high-standing. Could this be an indication of early stage of pedestal development?A pedestal crater is when the ejecta from an impact settles around the new crater and is more erosion-resistant than the surrounding terrain. Over time, the surrounding terrain erodes much faster than the ejecta; in fact, some pedestal craters are measured to be hundreds of meters above the surrounding area.HiRISE has imaged many other pedestal craters before, and the ejecta isn't always symmetrical, as in this observation.This caption is based on the original science rationale.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. | |
NASA's Mars Global Surveyor shows a small portion of a dust-covered plain directly north of Labyrinthus Noctis on Mars which is cut by three linear troughs. | 9 June 2006This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) image shows a small portion of a dust-covered plain directly north of Labyrinthus Noctis which is cut by three linear troughs. The two long troughs running diagonally from the lower left (southwest) to the upper right (northeast) are connected by a third, shorter trough. Boulders derived from erosion of layered rock in the trough walls are seen perched on the sloping sidewalls and resting on the trough floors among giant windblown ripples.Location near: 0.2°N, 105.0°W Image width: ~3 km (~1.9 mi) Illumination from: upper left Season: Northern Spring | |
This image from NASA's Mars Odyssey shows a cross section of Gale Crater, including the large layered deposit on the crater floor. | 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 a cross section of Gale Crater, including the large layered deposit on the crater floor. The Curiosity Rover is located in Gale Crater. Gale crater is 150km (90 miles) in diameter.Orbit Number: 78672 Latitude: -5.332 Longitude: 138.139 Instrument: VIS Captured: 2019-09-09 04:00Please 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 from NASA's Mars Odyssey shows part of the floor of Hale Crater and the elongate axis of the central peak mountains. | Context imageToday's VIS image shows part of the floor of Hale Crater and the elongate axis of the central peak mountains. Hale Crater is an example of an oblique impact crater. The mountain chain trends from the southeast towards the northwest, increasing in height towards the northwest. The incoming meteor struck the surface along this trend, forming an oval crater and displacing the impact energy forward to create the central mountain range. Hale Crater is located near the northern part of Argye Plainitia.Orbit Number: 91600 Latitude: -35.5357 Longitude: 323.628 Instrument: VIS Captured: 2022-08-08 14:50Please 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. | |
NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity took the images combined into this 360-degree view of the rover's surroundings onMarch 6, 2005. Opportunity had completed a drive of 124 meters (407 feet) across the rippled flatland of the Meridiani Planum region | 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 397th martian day, or sol, of its surface mission (March 6, 2005). Opportunity had completed a drive of 124 meters (407 feet) across the rippled flatland of the Meridiani Planum region on the previous sol, but did not drive on this sol. This location is catalogued as Opportunity's site 48. The view is presented here as a cylindrical projection with geometric and brightness seam correction. | |
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 some of the plains of Terra Cimmeria. | Context imageThe THEMIS camera contains 4 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 some of the plains of Terra Cimmeria.Orbit Number: 41441 Latitude: -28.1782 Longitude: 135.93 Instrument: VIS Captured: 2011-04-18 12:37Please 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. | |
The drill hole from Perseverance's second sample-collection attempt can be seen, in this composite of two images taken on Sept. 1, 2021, by one of the Perseverance rover's navigation cameras. | This composite of two images shows the hole drilled by NASA's Perseverance rover during its second sample-collection attempt. The images, which were obtained by one of the rover's navigation cameras on Sept. 1, 2021 (the 190th sol, or Martian day, of the mission), were taken in the "Crater Floor Fractured Rough" geologic unit in Mars' Jezero Crater. The team nicknamed the rock "Rochette" for reference and the spot on the rock where the sample was cored "Montdenier."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. | |
This image taken by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shows a series of parallel layers eroding into peculiar knobs and hills. | This observation shows a series of parallel layers eroding into peculiar knobs and hills.These sedimentary rocks were imaged on the floor of a large crater located at 8.8 degrees North, 358.3 degrees East. Similar rock units are found within several nearby craters also imaged by HiRISE, as seen in images PSP_001902_1890, ESP_013611_1910, and PSP_002733_1880. The occurrence of similar layers in each of these locations may indicate that they were once part of a much more extensive geologic unit that has now been largely eroded away.One particularly interesting aspect of the layers in this image is their repetitive nature. Each layer appears to be nearly the same thickness throughout the outcrop, as has also been observed in other nearby layered units. This cyclic nature points to a formation process which occurred repeatedly, building up the deposit layer by layer. However, the exact formation mechanism and the climate cycle possibly responsible for forming the layers here remain unknown.Studying the record exposed in rocks like these can help reveal secrets of the ancient Martian climate.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, is the spacecraft development and integration contractor for the project and built the spacecraft. | |
This image from NASA's Mars Global Surveyor shows the Tharsis face of Mars in mid-August, 2006. | 1 August 2006This picture is a composite of Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) daily global images acquired at Ls 93° during a previous Mars year. This month, Mars looks similar, as Ls 93° occurs in mid-August 2006. The picture shows the Tharsis face of Mars. Over the course of the month, additional faces of Mars as it appears at this time of year are being posted for MOC Picture of the Day. Ls, solar longitude, is a measure of the time of year on Mars. Mars travels 360° around the Sun in 1 Mars year. The year begins at Ls 0°, the start of northern spring and southern autumn.Season: Northern Summer/Southern Winter | |
This image captured by NASA's 2001 Mars Odyssey spacecraft shows part of the large sand sheet within Proctor Crater. | Context image This VIS image shows part of the large sand sheet within Proctor Crater. The surface of the sand sheet hosts dune forms.Orbit Number: 65317 Latitude: -47.7498 Longitude: 30.1831 Instrument: VIS Captured: 2016-09-04 01:02Please 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 region southwest of Olympus Mons is covered with materials that have been eroded by the wind. Surface materials in this area indicate wind action in many different directions as shown in this image from NASA's Mars Odyssey. | Context imageThe region southwest of Olympus Mons is covered with materials that have been eroded by the wind. Surface materials in this area indicate wind action in many different directions.Orbit Number: 37494 Latitude: 7.15345 Longitude: 219.332 Instrument: VIS Captured: 2010-05-28 14:30Please 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 part of the caldera floor of Arsia Mons. Arsia Mons is the southernmost of the Tharsis volcanoes. It is 270 miles in diameter, almost 12 miles high, and the summit caldera is 72 miles wide. | Context image This THEMIS image shows part of the caldera floor of Arsia Mons. It is not uncommon for calderas to have "flat" floors after the final explosive eruption the empties the subsurface magma chamber. There may still be some magma or superheated rock left after the collapse that will fill in part of the depression. Additionally, over time erosion will work to level the topography. Within Arsia Mons there was renewed activity that occurred within the caldera along the alignment of the NE/SW trend of the three large volcanoes. This ongoing, low volume actitivity is similar to the lava lake in Kilauea in Hawaii. Small flows are visible throughout this image. In the center of the image is a small "L" shaped feature. This is the summit vent for the volcanic flows around it. The flows have lapped up against the caldera wall, filling in faults left by the caldera formation and increasing the elevation of the surface in this region of the caldera.Arsia Mons is the southernmost of the Tharsis volcanoes. It is 270 miles (450km) in diameter, almost 12 miles (20km) high, and the summit caldera is 72 miles (120km) wide. For comparison, the largest volcano on Earth is Mauna Loa. From its base on the sea floor, Mauna Loa measures only 6.3 miles high and 75 miles in diameter. A large volcanic crater known as a caldera is located at the summit of all of the Tharsis volcanoes. These calderas are produced by massive volcanic explosions and collapse. The Arsia Mons summit caldera is larger than many volcanoes on Earth. 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: 19874 Latitude: -8.57834 Longitude: 240.452 Instrument: VIS Captured: 2006-06-07 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 vertical-projection view was created from navigation camera images that NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit acquired on May 9, 2004. It revealed Spirit's view as it got closer to the 'Columbia Hills.' | This vertical-projection view was created from navigation camera images that NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit acquired on sol 124 (May 9, 2004). It reveals Spirit's view as it gets closer to the "Columbia Hills." | |
This image from NASA's Mars Odyssey shows part of the southwestern flank of Pavonis Mons. The channel and nearby oval depressions are both related to the flow of lava. Narrow lava flows can create channels. | Context imageThis VIS image shows part of the southwestern flank of Pavonis Mons. The channel and nearby oval depressions are both related to the flow of lava. Narrow lava flows can create channels. The cooling of the top of the channel will form a roof over the flow, creating a tube beneath the surface. After the lava stops flowing the tube can empty, leaving a subsurface void. The roof will then collapse into the void forming the oval surface features.Orbit Number: 73104 Latitude: -1.15359 Longitude: 245.948 Instrument: VIS Captured: 2018-06-07 14:23Please 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. | |
These dunes are located on the floor of Lowell Crater on Mars as seen by NASA's 2001 Mars Odyssey spacecraft. | Context image for PIA08026DunesThese dunes are located on the floor of Lowell Crater.Image information: VIS instrument. Latitude -51.8N, Longitude 277.1E. 17 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 is 3-D anaglyph, from NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit, shows an extreme close-up of round, blueberry-shaped grains on the crater floor near the rock outcrop at Meridiani Planum called Stone Mountain. 3D glasses are necessary. | This 3-D image from the Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity rover shows an extreme close-up of round, blueberry-shaped grains on the crater floor near the rock outcrop at Meridiani Planum called Stone Mountain. Scientists are studying these curious formations for clues about the soil's history. The observed area is 3 centimeters (1.2 inches) across. | |
Northern Plains | Image PSP_001482_2490 was taken by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera onboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft on November 19, 2006. The complete image is centered at 68.8 degrees latitude, 288.4 degrees East longitude. The range to the target site was 313.9 km (196.2 miles). At this distance the image scale is 31.4 cm/pixel (with 1 x 1 binning) so objects ~94 cm across are resolved. The image shown here has been map-projected to 25 cm/pixel. The image was taken at a local Mars time of 3:04 PM and the scene is illuminated from the west with a solar incidence angle of 60 degrees, thus the sun was about 30 degrees above the horizon. At a solar longitude of 138.0 degrees, the season on Mars is Northern Summer.NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver, is the prime contractor for the project and built the spacecraft. The High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment is operated by the University of Arizona, Tucson, and the instrument was built by Ball Aerospace and Technology Corp., Boulder, Colo. | |
This ridged and pockmarked surface is located west of Phlegra Montes in the northern plains on Mars as seen by NASA's Mars Odyssey spacecraft. | Context image for PIA09042RidgesThis ridged and pockmarked surface is located west of Phlegra Montes in the northern plains.Image information: VIS instrument. Latitude 47.7N, Longitude 155.2E. 19 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 beautiful swirling layers and surface textures at the south pole of Mars. | Context image for PIA11349South Polar SpringThe sun has risen at the south pole of Mars, revealing the beautiful layers and surface textures.Image information: VIS instrument. Latitude -84.6N, Longitude 315.8E. 17 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 some of the extensive lava flows that make up Syria Planum on Mars. | Context image for PIA10852Syria PlanumThis image shows some of the extensive lava flows that make up Syria Planum.Image information: VIS instrument. Latitude -16.4N, Longitude 258.8E. 17 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. | |
The informally named 'Snow White' trench was the source for the next sample to be acquired by NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander for analysis by the wet chemistry lab showing a shadow-enhanced image of the trench on Sept. 8, 2008. | The informally named "Snow White" trench is the source for the next sample to be acquired by NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander for analysis by the wet chemistry lab.The Surface Stereo Imager on Phoenix took this shadow-enhanced image of the trench, on the eastern end of Phoenix's work area, on Sol 103, or the 103rd day of the mission, Sept. 8, 2008. The trench is about 23 centimeters (9 inches) wide.The wet chemistry lab is part of Phoenix's Microscopy, Electrochemistry and Conductivity suite of instruments.The Phoenix Mission is led by the University of Arizona, Tucson, on behalf of NASA. Project management of the mission is by NASA'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 THEMIS VIS camera contains 5 filters. Data from different filters can be combined in ways to create a false color image. This image from NASA's 2001 Mars Odyssey spacecraft shows the rim and ejecta of an unnamed crater northwest of Hesperia 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 the rim and ejecta of an unnamed crater on the northwest margin of Hesperia Planum.Orbit Number: 9010 Latitude: -9.88747 Longitude: 101.458 Instrument: VIS Captured: 2003-12-26 05:24Please 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 2001 Mars Odyssey spacecraft, shows a large landslide deposit in an unnamed crater southwest of Holden Crater. | Context imageCredit: NASA/JPL/MOLAToday's VIS image shows a large landslide deposit in an unnamed crater southwest of Holden Crater.Image information: VIS instrument. Latitude -27.5N, Longitude 323.3E. 20 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 a section of Bahram Vallis. This channel is located in northern Lunae Planum, south of Kasei Valles. | Context imageToday's VIS image shows a section of Bahram Vallis. This channel is located in northern Lunae Planum, south of Kasei Valles. Bharam Vallis drains from the higher elevations of Lunae Planum towards the Chryse Planitia basin. This channel is over 300km long (186miles).Orbit Number: 87576 Latitude: 20.3115 Longitude: 302.882 Instrument: VIS Captured: 2021-09-11 07:37Please 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. | |
NASA's Opportunity had driven 72.3 meters southward (237 feet) that sol. Engineers drove the rover backward as a strategy to counteract an increase in the amount of current drawn by the drive motor of the right-front wheel. This is a cylindric projection. | 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 1,912th Martian day, or sol, of its surface mission (June 10, 2009).Opportunity had driven 72.3 meters southward (237 feet) that sol. Engineers drove the rover backward as a strategy to counteract an increase in the amount of current drawn by the drive motor of the right-front wheel.North is at the top of the image; south at the bottom. Opportunity's position on Sol 1912 was about 2.5 kilometers (1.6 miles) south-southwest of Victoria Crater. For scale, the distance between the parallel wheel tracks is about 1 meter (about 40 inches).This view is presented as a cylindrical projection with geometric seam correction. | |
This image captured by NASA's 2001 Mars Odyssey spacecraft shows a portion of two unnamed craters in Terra Sabaea. | Context imageThis VIS image shows a portion of two unnamed craters in Terra Sabaea. The smaller crater at the top of the image contains many dark slope streaks. These streaks are thought to have formed by the movement of material down hill, disturbing or removing the brighter surface dust to reveal the darker rocky material below.Orbit Number: 63682 Latitude: 5.37887 Longitude: 48.2818 Instrument: VIS Captured: 2016-04-22 09:07Please 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 linear depressions, part of Nili Fossae. | 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. The linear depressions in today's false color image are part of Nili Fossae. Nili Fossae is a collection of curved faults and down-dropped blocks of crust between the faults. The "fossae," or graben, lie northeast of the large volcano Syrtis Major and northwest of the ancient impact basin Isidis Planitia. The troughs, which can be almost 500 meters (1,600 feet) deep , make concentric curves that follow the outline of Isidis Planitia. The graben likely formed as the crust sagged under the weight of lava flows filling the Isidis Planitia impact basin.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: 95071 Latitude: 17.8666 Longitude: 76.2766 Instrument: VIS Captured: 2023-05-21 10:52Please 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 March 18, 2015, view from the Mast Camera on NASA's Curiosity Mars rover shows a network of two-tone mineral veins at an area called 'Garden City' on lower Mount Sharp. | Figure 1Click on the image for larger versionRight click here to download half size resolution JPEG(See Photojournal Note below for full resolution TIFF)This view from the Mast Camera (Mastcam) on NASA's Curiosity Mars rover shows a network of two-tone mineral veins at an area called "Garden City" on lower Mount Sharp. The veins combine light and dark material. The veins at this site jut to heights of up to about 2.5 inches (6 centimeters) above the surrounding rock, and their widths range up to about 1.5 inches (4 centimeters). Figure 1 includes a 30-centimeter scale bar (about 12 inches). Mineral veins such as these form where fluids move through fractured rocks, depositing minerals in the fractures and affecting chemistry of the surrounding rock. In this case, the veins have been more resistant to erosion than the surrounding host rock.This scene is a mosaic combining 28 images taken with Mastcam's right-eye camera, which has a telephoto lens with a focal length of 100 millimeters. The component images were taken on March 18, 2015, during the 929th Martian day, or sol, of Curiosity's work on Mars. The color has been approximately white-balanced to resemble how the scene would appear under daytime lighting conditions on Earth.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.More information about Curiosity is online at http://www.nasa.gov/msl and http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/.Photojournal Note: Also available is the full resolution TIFF file PIA19161_full.tif. This file may be too large to view from a browser; it can be downloaded onto your desktop by right-clicking on the previous link and viewed with image viewing software. | |
This image from NASA's Mars Odyssey spacecraft shows a crazy mixture of bizarre surface features in Lucus Planum. | A crazy cacophony of bizarre surface features in Lucus Planum.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.Image information: VIS instrument. Latitude 1.3, Longitude 175.5 East (184.5 West). 19 meter/pixel resolution. | |
This image released on Oct 25, 2004 from NASA's 2001 Mars Odyssey shows Reull Vallis, located in the Martian southern highlands, just east of Hellas Basin. | This week we will be examining images of Reull Vallis. Reull Vallis is located in the Martian southern highlands, just east of Hellas Basin. This extensive channel system records an interesting fluvial and mass wasting geologic history of the area. In many images show interesting patterns of mass wasted material in the bottom of the channel. For more information on the geology of Reull Vallis see http://viking.eps.pitt.edu/public/IcarusPub/Geol_RVR_Icarus.html.Image information:VIS instrument. Latitude -42.1, Longitude 105.3 East (254.7 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. | |
Vent at the Summit of Arsia Mons Volcano | Click on image for larger versionLike the other major shield volcanoes on Mars, Arisa Mons has a caldera (large volcanic crater) at its summit.Calderas form when magma (molten rock) is removed from the magma chamber in the volcano, and the roof of the magma chamber collapses into the resulting void. In the case of Arsia Mons, there are relatively young lava flows that overtop the northeast rim of the caldera.This HiRISE image (PSP_002157_1715) samples some of these lava flows. The long elliptical depression is the summit crater of a small shield volcano that fed some of these lava flows. At HiRISE resolution, we see that even these younger lavas are covered by a thick layer of dust. The small dark-rayed crater in the southwest edge of the image shows that the rock under the dust is dark, as expected of lava.Observation GeometryAcquisition date: 1 January 2007Local Mars time: 3:41 PMDegrees latitude (centered): -8.4 °Degrees longitude (East): 240.1 °Range to target site: 244.7 km (153.0 miles) Original image scale range: 49.0 cm/pixel (with 2 x 2 binning) so objects ~147 cm across are resolvedMap-projected scale: 50 cm/pixel and north is upMap-projection: EQUIRECTANGULAREmission angle: 0.1 °Phase angle: 57.1 °Solar incidence angle: 57 °, with the Sun about 33 ° above the horizonSolar longitude: 165.0 °, Northern SummerNASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver, is the prime contractor for the project and built the spacecraft. The High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment is operated by the University of Arizona, Tucson, and the instrument was built by Ball Aerospace and Technology Corp., Boulder, Colo. | |
Target of Opportunity to the South | After NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity finishes examining its heat shield, the rover team plans to direct Opportunity southward toward a round feature dubbed "Vostok," about 1.2 kilometers (three-fourths of a mile) away. The plan is to check out small craters along the way.This image is from the Mars Orbiter Camera aboard NASA's Mars Global Surveyor. North is up, and the big circle at the top is "Endurance Crater." | |
This image captured by NASA's 2001 Mars Odyssey spacecraft shows part of the north wall of Valles Marineris near Melas Chasma. | Context imageThis VIS image shows part of the north wall of Valles Marineris near Melas Chasma.Orbit Number: 56461 Latitude: -10.2165 Longitude: 291.361 Instrument: VIS Captured: 2014-09-05 17:59Please 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. | |
This image produced from software used for planning drives of NASA's Mars rover Curiosity depicts the location and size of the rover when it was driven into position for drilling into rock target 'Cumberland.' | This image produced from software used for planning drives of NASA's Mars rover Curiosity depicts the location and size of the rover when it was driven into position for drilling into rock target "Cumberland." Cumberland was the mission's second drilling target. This image also shows the proximity to the first drilling target, "John Klein," which is about nine feet (2.75 meters) away from the Cumberland target. To get from one to the other, the rover backed away from John Klein, pivoted, and pulled forward toward Cumberland. Curiosity arrived at the depicted position during the 274th Martian day, or sol, of the rover's work on Mars (May 14, 2013). The outline of the rover is from Rover Sequencing and Visualization Program software, with ground imagery from a mosaic of images taken by Curiosity's Navigation cameras.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 and the rover's Navcam.More information about Curiosity is online at http://www.nasa.gov/msl and http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/. | |
This image captured by NASA's 2001 Mars Odyssey spacecraft shows part of the Nili Patera dune field. The paterae are calderas on the volcanic complex called Syrtis Major Planum. | Context image This image shows part of the Nili Patera dune field. 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: 34554 Latitude: 8.70872 Longitude: 67.1631 Instrument: VIS Captured: 2009-09-28 12:58Please 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 Reconnaissance Orbiter spies a layer of dry ice covering Mars' south polar layer. In the spring, gas created from heating of the dry ice escapes through ruptures in the overlying seasonal ice, entraining material from the ground below. | Map Projected Browse ImageClick on the image for larger versionA layer of dry ice covers the South Polar layered deposits every winter. In the spring, gas created from heating of the dry ice escapes through ruptures in the overlying seasonal ice, entraining material from the ground below. The gas erodes channels in the surface, shown in this image, generally exploiting weaker material.The ground likely started as polygonal patterned ground (common in water-ice-rich surfaces), and then escaping gas widened the channels. Fans of dark material are bits of the surface carried onto the top of the seasonal ice layer and deposited in a direction determined by local winds.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. | |
On Nov. 26, 2018, MarCO-B, one of NASA's Mars Cube One (MarCO) CubeSats, took this image of Mars from about 4,700 miles (6,000 kilometers) away during its flyby of the Red Planet. | MarCO-B, one of the experimental Mars Cube One (MarCO) CubeSats, took this image of Mars from about 4,700 miles (7,600 kilometers) away during its flyby of the Red Planet on Nov. 26, 2018. MarCO-B was flying by Mars with its twin, MarCO-A, to attempt to serve as communications relays for NASA's InSight spacecraft as it landed on Mars. This image was taken at about 12:10 p.m. PST (3:10 p.m. EST) while MarCO-B was flying away from the planet after InSight landed.The MarCO and InSight projects are managed for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, by JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena. | |
The lava flows in this image captured by NASA's 2001 Mars Odyssey spacecraft are part of Daedalia Planum on Mars, the immense plain of flows from Arsia Mons. | Context imageThe lava flows in this VIS image are part of Daedalia Planum, the immense plain of flows from Arsia Mons.Orbit Number: 46368 Latitude: -22.3981 Longitude: 238.519 Instrument: VIS Captured: 2012-05-28 02:19Please 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 a small portion of the immense lava flows that originated from Arsia Mons. | Context imageToday's VIS image shows a small portion of the immense lava flows that originated from Arsia Mons. Arsia Mons is the southernmost of the three large aligned volcanoes in the Tharsis region. Arsia Mons' last eruption was 10s of million years ago. The different surface textures are created by differences in the lava viscosity and cooling rates. The lobate margins of each flow can be traced back to the start of each flow — or to the point where they are covered by younger flows. Flows in Daedalia Planum can be as long as 180 km.Orbit Number: 84016 Latitude: -23.1326 Longitude: 237.739 Instrument: VIS Captured: 2020-11-22 03:44Please 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 a large crater on Mars with its ejecta emplaced in a semifluidized state, creating an outer rampart at the distal ends of the ejecta blanket. This wall can act as a trap for fine wind blown materials. | The large crater in this nighttime IR image had its ejecta emplaced in a semifluidized state, creating an outer rampart at the distal ends of the ejecta blanket. This wall can act as a trap for fine wind blown materials. It is likely that part of the darker/cooler materials surrounding the crater are wind blown materials such as dust and sand. This crater is located north of the Meridiani region of Mars.Image information: IR instrument. Latitude 1.9, Longitude 359.1 East (0.89999999999998 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. | |
This image from NASA's Mars Odyssey shows a section of Cerberus Fossae. | Context imageToday's VIS image shows a section of Cerberus Fossae. Located southeast of the Elysium Planitia volcanic complex, the linear graben in the image were created by tectonic forces related to the volcanic activity. The graben are sources of both channels and significant volcanic flows. The Cerberus Fossae graben cut across features such as hills, indicating the relative youth of the tectonic activity. Graben form where extensional tectonic forces allows blocks of material to subside between paired faults. Cerberus Fossae are 270km (168 miles) long.Just off the image to the right is the start of Athabasca Valles, which is seen flowing below the graben to the bottom left of the image. Arising from Cerberus Fossae, the formation mode of this channel is still being debated. While the channel features are similar to water flow, other features are similar to lava flows, and yet other features have an appearance of slabs of material that floated on an underlying fluid. It is thought that Athabasca Valles is the youngest outflow channel system on Mars. Athabasca Valles is just one of the complex channel formations in the Elysium Planitia region.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: 86770 Latitude: 10.3516 Longitude: 156.539 Instrument: VIS Captured: 2021-07-06 22:48Please 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. | |
The lava flows and collapse features in this image from NASA's 2001 Mars Odyssey spacecraft are located near Ascraeus Mons on Mars. | Context imageThe lava flows and collapse features in this VIS image are located near Ascraeus Mons.Orbit Number: 48751 Latitude: 12.885 Longitude: 260.038 Instrument: VIS Captured: 2012-12-10 07:14Please 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 mosaic image shows part of the left side of NASA's Curiosity rover and two blast marks from the descent stage's rocket engines. The rim of Gale Crater is the lighter colored band across the horizon. The back of the rover is to the left. | This mosaic image shows part of the left side of NASA's Curiosity rover and two blast marks from the descent stage's rocket engines. The images that were used to make the mosaic were obtained by the rover's Navigation cameras on Aug. 7 PDT (Aug. 8 EDT).The rim of Gale Crater is the lighter colored band across the horizon. The back of the rover is to the left. The blast marks can be seen in the middle of the image. Several small bits of rock and soil, which were made airborne by the rocket engines, are visible on the rover's top deck.
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 image shows the robotic arm of NASA's Mars rover Curiosity with the first rock touched by an instrument on the arm. The rover placed the APXS instrument onto the rock to assess what chemical elements were present in the rock. | This image shows the robotic arm of NASA's Mars rover Curiosity with the first rock touched by an instrument on the arm. The rover's right Navigation Camera (Navcam) took this image during the 46th Martian day, or sol, of the mission (Sept. 22, 2012). On that sol, the rover placed the Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer (APXS) instrument onto the rock to assess what chemical elements were present in the rock. The rock is named "Jake Matijevic" in commemoration of influential Mars-rover engineer Jacob Matijevic (1947-2012).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 image, acquired on December 31, 2019 by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, shows four relatively bright mounds along a linear, curving feature that appears to be a rift zone. | Map Projected Browse ImageClick on image for larger versionThis image shows four relatively bright mounds along a linear, curving feature that appears to be a rift zone, where the shallow surface materials have pulled apart. The mounds also appear to be deformed. A possible geologic interpretation is that as the rift began to open, subsurface material (perhaps mud) erupted to create the mounds, which were then deformed as the rift continued to spread. This region (Chryse Planitia) is a low-elevation basin in which large outflow channels deposited water and sediments billions of years ago.The map is projected here at a scale of 25 centimeters (9.8 inches) per pixel. (The original image scale is 30.5 centimeters [12.0 inches] per pixel [with 1 x 1 binning]; objects on the order of 92 centimeters [36.2 inches] across are resolved.) 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. | |
NASA's Mars Global Surveyor shows sedimentary rock outcrops within a crater in western Arabia Terra on Mars. The sediments may have been deposited in an intracrater lake. | 31 October 2004This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) image shows sedimentary rock outcrops within a crater in western Arabia Terra near 8.8°N, 1.3°W. These are eroded from the same rocks as seen in an earlier MOC Picture of the Day from 1 December 2003. The repeated nature of these layers indicate episodic changes took place in the sedimentary depositional environment. The sediments may have been deposited in an intracrater lake. The picture covers an area about 3 km (1.9 mi) wide. Sunlight illuminates the scene from the left/upper left. | |
Two generations of Rovers. | December 5, 2002Two generations of Rovers. | |
Combining two images, this mosaic shows a close-up view of the rock target named Yeehgo from the SuperCam instrument on NASA's Perseverance rover on Mars. | Figure 1Combining two images, this mosaic shows a close-up view of the rock target named "Yeehgo" from the SuperCam instrument on NASA's Perseverance rover on Mars. The component images were taken by SuperCam's Remote Micro-Imager (RMI) on March 7, 2021 (the 16th Martian day, or sol, of Perseverance's mission on Mars). To be compatible with the rover's software, "Yeehgo" is an alternative spelling of "Yéigo," the Navajo word for diligent. The target is 10.9 feet (3.325 meters) from the rover. Each of the two images in the mosaic shows a field of view 2.5 inches (6.2 centimeters) in diameter.Perseverance's Navigation Cameras (Nav Cam) and Mastcam-Z instrument also took images of that area at the same time to provide multiple views of the rock target, as seen in the annotated version of this image.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/ | |
NASA's Mars Global Surveyor shows gullies on the walls of two different meteor impact craters that occur in Newton Basin in Sirenum Terra, Mars, exhibiting patches of wintertime frost on the crater wall, and dark-toned sand dunes on the floor. | With the release this month (October 2002) of the latest installment of 18,812 images, the Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) passes another major milestone: more than 100,000 images have been validated and archived with the NASA Planetary Data System. The total number of archived images now available on-line is 112,218--more than twice the number of pictures acquired by the two Viking orbiters in 1976-1980. These pictures, from MOC extended mission subphases E07 through E12, were acquired August 2001 through January 2002. Every six months, after a six-month, labor-intensive archiving effort, the MOC team releases six months-worth of validated data to the NASA Planetary Data System.Mars Global Surveyor is now in its sixth year orbiting the red planet. MGS reached Mars on 12 September 1997. The first MOC images were obtained on 15 September 1997.The two pictures shown here were taken by the MOC narrow angle (high resolution) camera and "colorized" by applying the colors of Mars obtained by the MOC wide angle cameras. Both pictures show gullies on the walls of two different meteor impact craters that occur in Newton Basin in Sirenum Terra, Mars. The picture on the left, showing gullies in a crater at 42.4°S, 158.2°W, exhibits patches of wintertime frost on the crater wall, and dark-toned sand dunes on the floor. The picture on the right, from a crater at 39.0°S, 166.1°W, is one of the highest-resolution images obtained from Mars. Its resolution is 1.5 meters (5 feet) per pixel--objects the size of school buses can be resolved in the full size image. The gullies in these craters originate at a specific layer and may have formed by release of groundwater to the martian surface in geologically recent times.MOC data from E07 through E12 include many exciting observations of the 2001 planet-enshrouding dust storm events, springtime retreat of the south polar seasonal frost cap, hundreds of images designed to monitor the retreat of carbon dioxide ice cliffs in the south polar residual cap, images obtained to look for changes and stereo views of gullies, pictures of proposed and potential Mars Exploration Rover landing sites, and more. Several previous MGS MOC releases highlighted these diverse E07-E12 observations:PIA03169 Springtime on the Martian South Polar CapPIA03170 The 2001 Great Dust Storms - Hellas/Syrtis MajorPIA03171 The 2001 Great Dust Storms - TharsisPIA03178 MOC's 100,000th ImagePIA03179 MOC Observes Changes in the South Polar Cap: Evidence for Recent Climate Change on MarsPIA03471 Changes in South Polar Carbon Dioxide Ice CapPIA03472 Stereo View of Layer Outcrops in Iani ChaosPIA03753 Gullies and Streaks on Crater wall KaiserPIA03496 Southern Hemisphere Polygonal Patterned GroundPIA03918 "Inca City" is Part of a Circular FeatureMalin 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 Spirit's panoramic camera is assembled from frames acquired on Nov. 23 and 24, 2005 from the rover's position near an outcrop called 'Seminole.' The marscape shows an abundance of rocks upon red soil. | This view from Spirit's panoramic camera is assembled from frames acquired on Martian days, or sols, 672 and 673 (Nov. 23 and 24, 2005) from the rover's position near an outcrop called "Seminole." The view is a southward-looking portion of a larger panorama still being completed. This approximately true-color view is a composite of images shot through three different filters, admitting light of wavelengths 750 nanometers, 530 nanometers and 430 nanometers. | |
This image from NASA's 2001 Mars Odyssey spacecraft shows some of the depressions in the material that fills Asimov Crater. | Context imageThis VIS image shows some of the depressions in the material that fills Asimov Crater.Orbit Number: 51158 Latitude: -47.1293 Longitude: 4.95194 Instrument: VIS Captured: 2013-06-26 07:03Please 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 Global Surveyor shows the Charitum Montes, a mountain range that bounds southern Argyre Planitia. Carbon dioxide frost coats some of the hills, craters, and mountainsides in the southern springtime on Mars. | 10 November 2004This is a perspective view of the Charitum Montes, the mountain range that bounds southern Argyre Planitia, created by combining red and blue Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) wide angle images with topography from the MGS Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter (MOLA). Carbon dioxide frost coats some of the hills, craters, and mountainsides in this southern springtime image. The picture is located near 57°S, 43°W. North is toward the top, south toward the bottom. Sunlight illuminates the scene from the upper left. The area shown is about 355 km (220 miles) wide. A smaller portion of this image was previously released in July 2003 as "Frosty Mountains." | |
This scene from the panoramic camera (Pancam) on NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity catches 'Pillinger Point,' on the western rim of Endeavour Crater, in the foreground. | This scene from the panoramic camera (Pancam) of NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity catches "Pillinger Point," on the western rim of Endeavour Crater, in the foreground. The eastern rim of the crater is on the distant horizon. Endeavour Crater is 14 miles (22 kilometers) in diameter.The vista spans from north-northwest, at the left, to south-southwest, at the right. It merges several Pancam exposures taken on the 3,663rd Martian day, or sol, of Opportunity's work on Mars (May 14, 2014). The scene is presented in approximate true color by combing exposures taken through three of the Pancam's color filters, centered on wavelengths of 753 nanometers (near-infrared), 535 nanometers (green) and 432 nanometers (violet). Opportunity's international science team chose Pillinger Point as the informal name for this ridge as a tribute to Colin Pillinger (1943-2014). Pillinger was the British principal investigator for the Beagle 2 project, which attempted to set a lander on Mars a few weeks before Opportunity's January 2004 landing.The site became a destination for Opportunity to examine because observations from orbit indicated the presence of a clay mineral named montmorillonite, which forms under wet conditions. JPL manages the Mars Exploration Rover Project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. For more information about Spirit and Opportunity, visit http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov.Photojournal Note: Also available is the full resolution TIFF file PIA8393_full.tif. This file may be too large to view from a browser; it can be downloaded onto your desktop by right-clicking on the previous link and viewed with image viewing software. | |
This image from NASA's Mars Global Surveyor taken on Oct. 3, 1997, shows late afternoon clouds and hazes that are concentrated within the Valles Marineris canyon system. | MOC images P013_01 and P013_02 were acquired with the low resolution red and blue wide angle cameras at 2:14 PM PDT on October 3, 1997, about 11 minutes after Mars Global Surveyor passed close to the planet for the thirteenth time. To make a color image, a third component (green) was synthesized from the red and blue images. During the imaging period, the spacecraft was canted towards the sun-lit hemisphere by 25°, and the MOC was obliquely viewing features from about 600 to 1000 km (360 to 600 miles) away. The resolution at those distances was between 350 and 600 meters (0.25 to 0.37 miles) per picture element. The image covers an area from 73° to 86° W longitude and 5° N to 10° S).In the image above, north is to the top. The camera is viewing towards the west. The image is the composite of MOC frames P013_01 and P013_02. Because the MOC acquires its images one line at a time, the cant angle towards the sun-lit portion of the planet, the spacecraft orbital velocity, and the spacecraft rotational velocity combine to distort the image slightly. However, the wide angle cameras provide a fairly realistic portrayal of what one would see looking out across Mars from the Orbiter. Notable in this image are the late afternoon clouds and hazes that are concentrated within the Valles Marineris canyon system.Launched on November 7, 1996, Mars Global Surveyor entered Mars orbit on Thursday, September 11, 1997. From the planned 400 km (248 mi) orbit altitude, MOC wide angle images will be 2-4 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 is a screenshot from a computer-generated visualization tool used by NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity scientists to find the rover's best position for observing a target dubbed 'Last Chance' layered rock, on the far east end of the outcrop. | This graphic is a screenshot from a computer-generated visualization tool used by Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity scientists to find the rover's best position for observing a future target dubbed "Last Chance." Team members are determining how to obtain the optimal angle for photographing this layered rock, located on the far east end of the outcrop. The rover drivers must solve very complex geometry calculations to position the cameras at just the right distance from the rock with exactly the right illumination by the Sun. If the rover is parked to the west of the target, and the Sun is setting in the west when the rover is commanded to take the picture, the rover will cast a shadow on the prime location and important features in the image will be lost in the dark.The planning of this particular photo of "Last Chance" is particularly complex because the uneven terrain underneath the rover will cause the camera angle to tilt. All six rover wheels will be sitting on varied levels of rock and soil, creating a more difficult camera-aiming challenge. The rock area itself is at a right angle, which further complicates matters because the science team plans to take pictures from two sides of the rock to better understand how this rock formed.The number of pictures the science team plans to take of this site adds yet another layer of necessary forethought: the flash memory must be empty enough to record and store the large images before transmitting the data back to Earth. Three sols in advance of taking the pictures, the longterm planning team is asking the science team to conserve data volume to allow for an onslaught of new panoramic camera images scheduled for sol 36.This visualization software was created by the rover visualization team from NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif. Its terrain models are built from images taken by the rover's panoramic camera on the surface of Mars. The rover model, based on animations and drawings designed by Dan Maas at Maas Digital LLC, contains precise dimensions of the rover's mast and camera locations in relation to its entire body and wheels to an accuracy of centimeters. | |
From smooth topped mesas to rugged lowlands, this region of Mars near Huo Hsing Vallis presents several different surface textures on Mars as seen by NASA's Mars Odyssey spacecraft. | Context image for PIA01325Different TexturesFrom smooth topped mesas to rugged lowlands, this region of Mars near Huo Hsing Vallis presents several different surface textures.Image information: VIS instrument. Latitude 29.6N, Longitude 67.2E. 19 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 Reconnaissance Orbiter covers many shallow irregular pits with raised rims, concentrated along ridges and other topographic features. | Map Projected Browse ImageClick on the image for larger versionThis image covers many shallow irregular pits with raised rims, concentrated along ridges and other topographic features. How did these odd features form?One idea is that they could be from sublimation of shallow lenses of nearly pure ice, but why do the pits have raised rims? They can't be impact craters with such fortuitous alignment and irregular margins. They aren't wind-blown deposits because there are many boulders, too big to be moved by the wind. There are younger wind-blown drifts on top of the pits, and there's no clear connection to volcanism.Some speculate that there were ancient oceans over this region--could that somehow explain these features? Ancient glaciation is another possibility, perhaps depositing ice-rich debris next to topographic obstacles. Future images of this region may provide clues, but for now this is a mystery. HiRISE is one of six instruments on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. The University of Arizona, Tucson, operates the orbiter's 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 in Pasadena, manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Project for the NASA Science Mission Directorate, Washington. | |
This image taken at Meridiani Planum on Jan 31, 2004, confirmed that NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity's six wheels rolled off the lander and onto martian soil and shows its view of the martian horizon. | This image shows the Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity's view of the martian horizon from its new position on the surface of Mars. Engineers received confirmation that Opportunity's six wheels rolled off the lander and onto martian soil at 3:01 a.m. PST, January 31, 2004, on the seventh martian day, or sol, of the mission. The rover is approximately 1 meter (3 feet) in front of the lander, facing north. The image was taken at Meridiani Planum by the rover's front hazard-identification camera. | |
This image from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shows frosted gullies on a south-facing slope within a crater. At this time of year only south-facing slopes retain the frost, while the north-facing slopes have melted. | Map Projected Browse ImageClick on the image for larger versionThis HiRISE image, approximately 1.5 by 3 kilometers, shows frosted gullies on a south-facing slope within a crater.At this time of year only south-facing slopes retain the frost, while the north-facing slopes have melted. Gullies are not the only active geologic process going on here. A small crater is visible at the bottom of 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, Colorado. 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. | |
This portion of NASA Mars Odyssey image covers NASA's Viking 2 landing site (shown with the X). The second landing on Mars took place September 3, 1976 in Utopia Planitia. | This portion of a daytime IR image covers the Viking 2 landing site (shown with the X). The second landing on Mars took place September 3, 1976 in Utopia Planitia. The exact location of Lander 2 is not as well established as Lander 1 because there were no clearly identifiable features in the lander images as there were for the site of Lander 1. The Utopia landing site region contains pedestal craters, shallow swales and gentle ridges. The crater Goldstone was named in honor of the Tracking Station in the desert of California. The two Viking Landers operated for over 6 years (nearly four martian years) after landing. This one band IR (band 9 at 12.6 microns) image shows bright and dark textures, which are primarily due to differences in the abundance of rocks on the surface. The relatively cool (dark) regions during the day are rocky or indurated materials, fine sand and dust are warmer (bright). Many of the temperature variations are due to slope effects, with sun-facing slopes warmer than shaded slopes. The dark rings around several of the craters are due to the presence of rocky (cool) material ejected from the crater. These rocks are well below the resolution of any existing Mars camera, but THEMIS can detect the temperature variations they produce. Daytime temperature variations are produced by a combination of topographic (solar heating) and thermophysical (thermal inertia and albedo) effects. Due to topographic heating the surface morphologies seen in THEMIS daytime IR images are similar to those seen in previous imagery and MOLA topography.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 patterned ground, a mosaic of polygonal forms, highlighted by seasonal frost in the south polar region of Mars. | MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-473, 4 September 2003Looking somewhat like the roadmap of a city on Earth, this August 2003 Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) image shows patterned ground--a mosaic of polygonal forms--highlighted by seasonal frost in the south polar region near 86.3°S, 310.2°W. Dark surfaces in this springtime view are areas from which cold, carbon dioxide frost has been subliming away. The picture covers an area 3 km (1.9 mi) across and is illuminated by sunlight from the upper left. | |
NASA's Mars Rover Opportunity catches its own late-afternoon shadow in this dramatically lit view eastward across Endeavour Crater on Mars. | NASA's Mars Rover Opportunity catches its own late-afternoon shadow in this dramatically lit view eastward across Endeavour Crater on Mars.The rover used the panoramic camera (Pancam) between about 4:30 and 5:00 p.m. local Mars time to record images taken through different filters and combined into this mosaic view. Most of the component images were recorded during the 2,888th Martian day, or sol, of Opportunity's work on Mars (March 9, 2012). At that time, Opportunity was spending low-solar-energy weeks of the Martian winter at the Greeley Haven outcrop on the Cape York segment of Endeavour's western rim. In order to give the mosaic a rectangular aspect, some small parts of the edges of the mosaic and sky were filled in with parts of an image acquired earlier as part of a 360-degree panorama from the same location.Opportunity has been studying the western rim of Endeavour Crater since arriving there in August 2011. This crater spans 14 miles (22 kilometers) in diameter, or about the same area as the city of Seattle. This is more than 20 times wider than Victoria Crater, the largest impact crater that Opportunity had previously examined. The interior basin of Endeavour is in the upper half of this view.The mosaic combines about a dozen images taken through Pancam filters centered on wavelengths of 753 nanometers (near infrared), 535 nanometers (green) and 432 nanometers (violet). The view is presented in false color to make some differences between materials easier to see, such as the dark sandy ripples and dunes on the crater's distant floor. | |
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 false color image from NASA's 2001 Mars Odyssey spacecraft shows part of Solis 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 Solis Planum.Orbit Number: 8130 Latitude: -28.4509 Longitude: 279.701 Instrument: VIS Captured: 2003-10-14 18:55Please 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 as seen by NASA's 2001 Mars Odyssey spacecraft shows the layering of the ice at the north pole. | Context imageThis VIS image shows the layering of the ice at the north pole.Orbit Number: 54206 Latitude: 79.8759 Longitude: 339.493 Instrument: VIS Captured: 2014-03-04 04:19Please 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 part of Lomonosov Crater. Lomonosov Crater is 130km (81 miles) in diameter and is located in northern Acidalia Planitia. | 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 Lomonosov Crater. Lomonosov Crater is 130km (81 miles) in diameter and is located in northern Acidalia Planitia.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: 85559 Latitude: 65.0395 Longitude: 350.752 Instrument: VIS Captured: 2021-03-29 06:19Please 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 is a 360-degree view from NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity's position outside the small crater 'Eagle Crater.' Plentiful ripples are seen on the plains and two depressions featuring bright spots. | Click on the image for Looking Back at 'Eagle Crater' (QTVR)This is the right-eye version of the first 360-degree view from the Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity's new position outside "Eagle Crater," the small crater where the rover landed about two months ago. Scientists are busy analyzing Opportunity's new view of the plains of Meridiani Planum. The plentiful ripples are a clear indication that wind is the primary geologic process currently in effect on the plains. The rover's tracks can be seen leading away from Eagle Crater. At the far left are two depressions -- each about a meter (about 3.3 feet) across -- that feature bright spots in their centers. One possibility is that the bright material is similar in composition to the rocks in Eagle Crater's outcrop and the surrounding darker material is what's referred to as "lag deposit," or erosional remnants, which are much harder and more difficult to wear away. These twin dimples might be revealing pieces of a larger outcrop that lies beneath. The depression closest to Opportunity is whimsically referred to as "Homeplate" and the one behind it as "First Base." The rover's panoramic camera is set to take detailed images of the depressions today, on Opportunity's 58th sol. The backshell and parachute that helped protect the rover and deliver it safely to the surface of Mars are also visible near the horizon, at the left of the image. This image was taken by the rover's navigation camera. | |
This image from NASA's Mars Odyssey shows a section of unnamed channel located at the margin where large northward flowing channels enter Chryse Planitia. | Context imageToday's VIS image shows a section of unnamed channel located at the margin where large northward flowing channels enter Chryse Planitia. Channels such as Tiu, Ares, and Shalbatana Valles arise from the Valles Marineris canyons to empty a thousand miles later into the Chryse basin. Ares Vallis is over 1600km long (1000 miles) and Tiu Vallis is over 1720km long (1069 miles).Orbit Number: 81548 Latitude: 10.9272 Longitude: 324.621 Instrument: VIS Captured: 2020-05-02 23:34Please 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 image from NASA's Mars Global Surveyor shows south polar mesas composed largely of solid carbon dioxide separated by generally circular depressions. | 6 April 2006This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) image shows south polar mesas composed largely of solid carbon dioxide separated by generally circular depressions. The arcuate scarps, which delineate the mesas, retreat approximately 3 meters per Mars year (two Earth years), owing to sublimation which occurs primarily during the martian summer months.Location near: 86.9°S, 340.2°W Image width: ~3 km (~1.9 mi) Illumination from: upper left Season: Southern Summer | |
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 the plains of Terra Sirenum. | 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 plains of Terra Sirenum.Orbit Number: 40240 Latitude: -38.9101 Longitude: 221.138 Instrument: VIS Captured: 2011-01-09 15:22Please 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. | |
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 Argentea Planum near the south polar cap. | Context image The 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 Argentea Planum near the south polar cap.Orbit Number: 59921 Latitude: -83.0781 Longitude: 4.32012 Instrument: VIS Captured: 2015-06-17 14:54Please 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 a portion of Auqakuh Vallis on Mars. | Context image for PIA10858Auqakuh VallisThis VIS image shows a portion of Auqakuh Vallis.Image information: VIS instrument. Latitude 29.9N, Longitude 58.9E. 19 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. | |
Layers, probably sedimentary in origin, have undergone extensive erosion in this image from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) of Shalbatana Valles, a prominent channel that cuts through Xanthe Terra. | Map Projected Browse ImageClick on the image for larger versionLayers, probably sedimentary in origin, have undergone extensive erosion in this image from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) of Shalbatana Valles, a prominent channel that cuts through Xanthe Terra.This erosion has produced several small mesas and exposed light-toned material that may differ in composition from the surrounding material.The map is projected here at a scale of 25 centimeters (9.8 inches) per pixel. [The original image scale is 27.5 centimeters (10.8 inches) per pixel (with 1 x 1 binning); objects on the order of 82 centimeters (32.3 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 acquired this image on June 7, 1998. Shown here is the dark lineation of one of the Cerberus Rupes, a set of dark lines (ridges or fractures) that cross the region southeast of the Elysium volcanic rise. | The Second Science Phasing Orbits (SPO-2) period of the Mars Global Surveyor mission began at the end of May 1998. These orbits are morning orbits. That is, the local time on the planet beneath Mars Global Surveyor is in the morning. During the first part of June 1998, the local time on the ground was approximately 9:30 a.m. The Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) has observed that this time of day is quite cloudy this year.Clouds have thus posed a real challenge for the MOC team, who are targeting high resolution images almost every day. Many of the high resolution images that were returned to Earth in early June 1998 were nearly white with clouds and haze. Very little detail could be seen on the ground.The above picture illustrates one of the better cloudy images obtained by MOC. The haze was too thick to show much detail on the surface in the raw image, but in this case at least a dark lineation could be seen in part of the image. The full frame was nearly white everywhere except in the vicinity of the dark lineation. The MOC image, #35003, was obtained on Mars Global Surveyor's 350th orbit about the planet. The picture was taken around 4:00 a.m. PDT on June 7, 1998. The center of this subframe is at 8.03°N, 194.30°W. The dark lineation is one of the Cerberus Rupes--a set of dark lines (ridges or fractures) that cross the region southeast of the Elysium volcanic rise.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 NASA's 2001 Mars Odyssey spacecraft shows part of the southern flank of Ascraeus Mons. Large collapse features are common in this area. | Originally released on Oct. 9, 2013Context imageThis VIS image shows part of the southern flank of Ascraeus Mons. Large collapse features are common in this area.Orbit Number: 51823 Latitude: 7.0923 Longitude: 254.36 Instrument: VIS Captured: 2013-08-20 02:28Please 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 of Terra Cimmeria captured by NASA's 2001 Mars Odyssey spacecraft shows two channels intersecting to become one larger channel. | Context imageToday's VIS image of Terra Cimmeria shows two channels intersecting to become one larger channel.Orbit Number: 58450 Latitude: -42.1886 Longitude: 165.142 Instrument: VIS Captured: 2015-02-16 12:08Please 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. | |
CRISM's First 'Targeted' Observation of Mars | This shows the first site on Mars imaged by the Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars (CRISM) using its full-resolution hyperspectral capability, with a "targeted image."During a targeted image, CRISM's movable gimbal tracks a point on the surface, and slowly scans across it for about three minutes. The image is built up one line at a time, and each pixel in the image is measured in 544 colors covering 0.36-3.92 micrometers. During this time the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter's range to the target starts at about 410 kilometers (250 miles), decreases to about 290 kilometers (190 miles) when the spacecraft makes its closest approach, and increases again to 410 kilometers at the end of the image. The change in geometry during image acquisition gives each CRISM targeted image a characteristic hourglass shape.This first targeted image was acquired at 1515 UTC (11:15 a.m. EDT) on Sept. 29, 2006, near 7.7 degrees south latitude, 270.5 degrees east longitude. Only minimal processing and map projection of the data have been done. At the center of the image the spatial resolution is as good as 18 meters (60 feet) per pixel. The three wavelengths shown here provide an approximate true color representation. The hourglass-shaped image covers an area about 13 kilometers (8 miles) north-south and, at the narrowest point, about 9 kilometers (5.6 miles) east-west. The upper left panel shows the image's regional context, on a mosaic from the Mars Odyssey spacecraft's Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) taken in infrared frequencies. This western part of the Valles Marineris canyon system is called Ius Chasma. The canyon system is about five kilometers (about three miles) deep and exposes ancient rocks from deep in the crust. The lower left panel shows local context, using a THEMIS visible-wavelengths image (THEMIS-VIS), which is comparable in resolution to CRISM data. Outcrops of light-toned layered rocks 1-2 kilometers (0.6-1.2 miles) across are set on ]a background of deeply eroded canyon floor, and sand dunes cover part of the site. The map-projected CRISM image, at right, shows that the site has bland color properties at visible wavelengths, and is mostly reddened by Mars' pervasive dust or by weathering products. Faint color banding is visible in the layered rocks, hinting at compositional differences between the layers. CRISM's mission: Find the spectral fingerprints of aqueous and hydrothermal deposits and map the geology, composition and stratigraphy of surface features. The instrument will also watch the seasonal variations in Martian dust and ice aerosols, and water content in surface materials -- leading to new understanding of the climate.The Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars (CRISM) is one of six science instruments on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Led by The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, the CRISM team includes expertise from universities, government agencies and small businesses in the United States and abroad. |
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